Libertarianism attempts to establish a set of property rights as a complete political morality, its argument proceeding from liberty tout court, as the unique foundational aspect of well being that grounds rights. In this book, Attas presents a sympathetic reconstruction of the libertarian argument and then brings to bear a critical evaluation leading to an ultimate rejection of libertarianism. Exposing the limitations of libertarianism and disclosing its errors, Attas argues that the rights which libertarians adopt with respect to persons (self-ownership), natural resources (original acquisition) and products are indefensible given what liberty must be.

"Recent writing on the nature of freedom has served to underline a crucial gap in the academic experience. First--and most obviously--the concept of freedom has been modernized by its application to contemporary institutions. Second, a new approach to the concept of liberty has been pioneered in the construction of new typologies of freedom. Finally, awareness of variety in concepts of freedom has been paralleled in variations in the practice of freedom. The tumultuous history of Western man may be conceptualized as the story of how freedom has become embodied. What is missing from the story is the relationship of concepts to actions.This relationship has been established for some specific notions of freedom. Many of the philosophical analyses--especially recent ones like pragmatism and existentialism--have been predicated on actual human behavior. On the other hand, many classic histories of freedom--those of Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel, John Bagnell Bury, Guido de Ruggiero, and Harold Laski--have traced the actual development of a definite kind of freedom.This volume contains essays prepared to celebrate the anniversary of the publication of John Stuart Mill's On Liberty, revised in the light of discussions by Henry D. Aiken, William Ebenstein, Mark DeWolfe Howe, and David Spitz, as well as other articles, many of them growing out of the discussion either in the form of commentary or independent contributions. There are also two papers written independently (Andrew Hacker and Leonard Krieger)."--Provided by publisher.

This book is a discussion of current trends in the constitutional protection of economic liberties. Since the mid-1930's, the Supreme Court has been reluctant to replace legislative judgements on matters of economic regulation with its own. While the Court permits wide legislative experimentation in the economic realm, it scrutinizes governmental attempts to regulate or abridge other civil liberties quite closely. This state of affairs is known as the "double standard." The question of the appropriateness of this unequal treatment by the Court of these two classes of liberties generates much of the controversy in this volume. Other topics dealt with include the current trends in (and relevance of) constitutional law for welfare rights, labor unions, and labor law. Recent Supreme Court decisions on property rights also receive much attention.

This book examines the constitutional protection of economic rights through the nineteenth century and the first three decades of the twentieth. The authors grapple with such questions as: how should the commerce clause be interpreted? To what extent did the historical development of eminent domain law depart from the "rhetoric" of takings jurisprudence? How was the Constitution connected to economic growth in the nineteenth century? What was the effect of the post-/civil War constitutional amendments? How did the right to contract affect government attempts to balance private rights with the public good? What was the reaction of leading constitutional theorists to the dominance of a laissez-fair philosophy in the Court and the nation at the turn of the century?

In this book, Edward Keynes examines the fundamental-rights philosophy and jurisprudence that affords constitutional protection to unenumerated liberty, property, and privacy rights. He is critical of the failure of the U.S. Supreme Court to adopt a coherent theory for identifying which rights are to be considered fundamental and how these private rights are to be balanced against the public interests that the government has a duty to articulate and promote. Keynes develops his argument by first surveying how substantive due process grew out of the tradition of Anglo-American jurisprudence and came to evolve over time. He pays special attention to the shift in its application early in the twentieth century, from protecting "liberty of contract" against economic regulation to protecting "privacy" and other noneconomic rights (as in Roe v. Wade) against social regulation.

The materials in this collection are drawn from many disciplines, including economics,law, philosophy and political science. Yet they are all directed to a topic that is worthy of examination from multiple perspectives: Liberty, Property and the Law. Stated in this general form, this topic is as broad as law itself. The relationship of liberty andproperty to the law surfaces whenever and wherever people interact with each otherunder the command and control of the sovereign. Those who hold sovereign power may choose to protect liberty and property or to undermine it. But the regrettably high frequency of political abuse throughout the world does not justify the exercise ofarbitrary legal power; nor does it limit human aspirations for a sound legal and socialorder to block political excesses. First Published in 2000. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.

First Published in 2000. The materials in this collection are drawn from many disciplines, including economics, law, philosophy and political science. Yet they are all directed to a topic that is worthy of examination from multiple perspectives: Liberty, Property and the Law. Stated in this general form, this topic is broad as law itself. The relationship of liberty and property to the law surfaces whenever and wherever people interact with each other under the command and control of the sovereign. This is Volume II of five and concerns the extent to which the state should enforce or override private contracts made by individuals to dispose of their labor or capital. These issues did not disappear by the onset of the twentieth century, where Volume II picks up. Generally speaking, however, the tools of analysis shifted as the advances in economic theory helped to flesh out the justifications offered for individual liberty and private property on the one hand, and their social control on the other. Although the nature of the discourse changed to some degree, the division of opinion on the proper role of liberty and property remained as sharply contested as it was in earlier times.

A provocative new vision of free market capitalism that achieves liberal ends by libertarian means Can libertarians care about social justice? In Free Market Fairness, John Tomasi argues that they can and should. Drawing simultaneously on moral insights from defenders of economic liberty such as F. A. Hayek and advocates of social justice such as John Rawls, Tomasi presents a new theory of liberal justice. This theory, free market fairness, is committed to both limited government and the material betterment of the poor. Unlike traditional libertarians, Tomasi argues that property rights are best defended not in terms of self-ownership or economic efficiency but as requirements of democratic legitimacy. At the same time, he encourages egalitarians concerned about social justice to listen more sympathetically to the claims ordinary citizens make about the importance of private economic liberty in their daily lives. In place of the familiar social democratic interpretations of social justice, Tomasi offers a "market democratic" conception of social justice: free market fairness. Tomasi argues that free market fairness, with its twin commitment to economic liberty and a fair distribution of goods and opportunities, is a morally superior account of liberal justice. Free market fairness is also a distinctively American ideal. It extends the notion, prominent in America's founding period, that protection of property and promotion of real opportunity are indivisible goals. Indeed, according to Tomasi, free market fairness is social justice, American style. Provocative and vigorously argued, Free Market Fairness offers a bold new way of thinking about politics, economics, and justice—one that will challenge readers on both the left and right.