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Libertarian theories of law build upon classical liberal and individualist anarchist doctrines.

The defining characteristics of libertarian legal theory are its insistence that the amount of government intervention should be kept to a minimum and the primary functions of law should be enforcement of contracts and social order, though "social order" is often seen as a desirable side effect of a free market rather than a philosophical necessity.

Historically, the Austrian economist Friedrich Hayek is the most important libertarian legal theorist. Another important predecessor was Lysander Spooner, a 19th-century American individualist anarchist and lawyer. John Locke was also an influence on libertarian law theory (see Two Treatises of Government).

Ideas range from anarcho-capitalism to a minimal state providing mere enforcement of contracts. Some advocate regulation, including the existence of a police force, military, public land, and public infrastructure. Geolibertarians oppose ownership of land on Georgist grounds.

Notable theorists[link]

Authors discussing libertarian legal theory include:

• Randy Barnett (The Structure of Liberty)
• Bruce L. Benson (The Enterprise of Law: Justice Without the State)
• Walter Block
• Frank van Dun
• Richard Epstein (Skepticism and Freedom)
• David Friedman (The Machinery of Freedom)
• Friedrich Hayek (Law, Legislation and Liberty)
• Gene Healy
• Stephan Kinsella
• Hans Hermann Hoppe (The Economics and Ethics of Private Property)
• Jacob Hornberger
• Bruno Leoni (Freedom and the Law)
• Robert P. Murphy (Chaos Theory)
• Robert Nozick (Anarchy, State, and Utopia)
• Roger Pilon
• Murray Rothbard (The Ethics of Liberty)
• Bernard Siegan (Economic Liberties and the Constitution)
• Linda and Morris Tannehill (The Market for Liberty)

See also[link]

• Argumentation Ethics
• Constitutional economics
• Equality before the law
• Judicial activism
• Law and economics
• Classical liberalism
• Libertarianism
• Philosophy of law
• Polycentric law
• Rule according to higher law

References[link]

• Randy Barnett (1998). The Structure of Liberty: Justice and the Rule of Law. Oxford: Clarendon Press. ISBN 0-19-829324-0.
• Richard Epstein (2003). Skepticism and Freedom: A Modern Case for Classical Liberalism. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. ISBN 0-226-21304-8.
• Friedrich Hayek (1981). Law, Legislation and Liberty: The Political Order of a Free People. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. ISBN 0-415-09868-8, ISBN 0-226-32090-1.

External links[link]

• Randy Barnett's "The Structure of Liberty"
• Legal Theory Lexicon: Libertarian Theories of Law

Stephan Kinsella

Norman Stephan Kinsella (born 1965) is an American intellectual property lawyer and libertarian legal theorist. His electronically published works are primarily published on his blog and websites associated with the Ludwig von Mises Institute and anarcho-capitalist organizations.

Education[link]

Born in Prairieville, Louisiana, he attended Louisiana State University where he earned Bachelor of Science (BS) and Master of Science (MS) degrees in electrical engineering, and a Juris Doctor (JD) from the Paul M. Hebert Law Center. He also obtained an LL.M. at the University of London.

Career in law[link]

While Kinsella was general counsel of Applied Optoelectronics, Inc. of Sugar Land, Texas from 2000 to 2012, he is now practicing law with Kinsella Law Group in Houston since Feb. 2012. A practicing intellectual property attorney and former adjunct professor of law at South Texas College of Law, where he taught computer law, Kinsella is actively involved with libertarian legal and political theory, and is an adjunct scholar of the Mises Institute as well as the former Book Review Editor for the Institute's Journal of Libertarian Studies. He is also a contributor to the news and opinion blog at LewRockwell.com and is the creator of Libertarian Papers, a peer-reviewed online journal published under the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License.^[1]

He writes that, after college, he "began to put more emphasis on Austrian economics and paleolibertarian insights of Rothbard, Hans-Hermann Hoppe, and Rockwell."^[2]

Publications[link]

Kinsella's legal publications include books and articles about patent law, contract law, e-commerce law, international law and other topics. Kinsella has also published and lectured on a variety of libertarian topics, often combining libertarian and legal analysis. Kinsella's views on contract theory, causation and the law, intellectual property, and rights theory (in particular his estoppel theory) are his main contributions to libertarian theory.

In contract theory, he extends Murray Rothbard's^[3] and Williamson Evers's^[4] title transfer theory of contract linking it with inalienability theory while also attempting to clarify that theory.^[5] Kinsella advances a theory of causation that attempts to explain why remote actors can be liable under libertarian theory.^[6] He gives non-utilitarian arguments for intellectual property being incompatible with libertarian property rights principles.^[7] He offers a discourse ethics argument for the justification of individual rights, using an extension of the concept of estoppel.^[8]

Books[link]

• Protecting Foreign Investment Under International Law: Legal Aspects of Political Risk (with Paul E. Comeaux). Oceana Publications, 1997. ISBN 978-0-379-21371-3
• Online Contract Formation (with Andrew Simpson). Oxford University Press, 2004. ISBN 978-0-379-21519-9
• International Investment, Political Risk, and Dispute Resolution: A Practitioner's Guide (with Noah Rubins). Oxford University Press, 2005. ISBN 978-0-379-21522-9
• Against Intellectual Property. Ludwig von Mises Institute, 2008. ISBN 978-1-933550-32-9

Notes[link]

External links[link]

• KinsellaLaw, Stephan Kinsella's legal website
• StephanKinsella.com, Stephan Kinsella's libertarian website
• List of publications
• Archive of Kinsella commentary from LewRockwell.com
• Symposium: "Do patents and copyrights undermine private property?" Ilana Mercer, Stephan Kinsella, and James DeLong. Insight on the News. 21 May 2001.
• AGAINST INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY Journal of Libertarian Studies. Volume 15, no. 2 (Spring 2001): 1–53.

v t e Anarcho-capitalism Literature Relationship with anarchism Relationship with minarchism Anarcho-capitalist revolution Symbolism Criticisms Features Aggression insurance Crime insurance Dispute resolution organization Free-market roads Jurisdictional arbitrage Non-aggression principle Polycentric law Private defense agency Private Governance Self-ownership Spontaneous order

David Clement Makinson, D.Phil, (born 27 August 1941), is an Australian mathematical logician living in London, England.

Career[link]

Makinson began his studies at Sydney University in 1958 and was an associate of the Libertarian Society and Sydney Push. He is a Visiting Professor in the London School of Economics, University of London, and an associate member of the Centre of Research in Applied Epistemology (CREA), École Polytechnique, Paris. He has held professorial rank positions in King's College London, University of London and in the American University of Beirut, Lebanon. From 1980 till 2001 he worked for UNESCO, Paris.

Contribution[link]

David Makinson is highly regarded for his work on belief revision, uncertain reasoning, and modal logic. While studying in Oxford University (Worcester College) for his D.Phil under the supervision of Michael Dummett, he identified the preface paradox. In belief revision he created the AGM account of theory change with Carlos Alchourrón and Peter Gärdenfors. In modal logic and other non-classical logics, he showed how to establish completeness results by adapting the method of maximal consistent set. In 1969 Makinson discovered the first simple and natural propositional logic lacking the finite model property.

External links[link]

• David Makinson's website