The doctrine of natural liberty is ultimately grounded on two premises which are necessary to the understanding of why governments are “criminal.” By the self-ownership axiom, every individual has an absolute right to his or her own mind and body and the labor thereof; i.e., each person has the right to control that mind and body free of coercive interference. By the homesteading axiom, the first user, the first person who transforms and uses previously unclaimed and unused resources, becomes their absolute owner.

Volume 5, Number 3 (1981)

Since the victors of warfare write the histories, one must look long and hard to find recognition of the radical critics of any given war. No matter how substantial or respectable anti-war sentiment may be as a conflict approaches, once the pro-war spirit gets rolling, like a snowball down a mountain, it sweeps aside everything in its path. The War between the States is no exception.

Volume 5, Number 3 (1981)

Adam Smith’s “invisible hand” sometimes works in such marvelously subtle ways that it remains nearly invisible even to economists. A case in point involves government efforts to control prices.

Volume 5, Number 3 (1981)

This paper by Antony Flew offers a critique of Karl Popper’s The Poverty of Historicism as well as E.H. Carr’s What is History?

Volume 5, Number 4 (1981)

The crux of the Arab-Israeli conflict is the Palestinian question, and the crux of the Palestinian question is: who justly owns the land of Israel or Palestine? The parties involved in the Middle East struggle are cognizant of the centrality of the land question.

Volume 5, Number 4 (1981)

This paper compares the work of two pioneers in the field of law and liberty: F. A. Hayek and his predecessor, Frédéric Bastiat. Both these writers treat government by law as a necessary condition for the emergence of a free-market system; and they also warn that the substitution of distributive for commutative justice will impair individual freedom.

Volume 5, Number 4 (1981)

Journal of Libertarian Studies 5, no. 4 (1981)

Volume 5, Number 4 (1981)

Two trends stand out in an examination of the historical development of land use regulation in the United States. First, continually increasing controls have been placed on the rights of private landowners to use their land as they please. Second, in recent years state and federal involvement in land use regulation has become increasingly important. The dual purposes of this paper are to offer an explanation for, and to examine the consequences of, these trends.

The “free rider problem,” arising from the fact that an individual may be able to obtain the benefits of a good without contributing to the cost, is discussed in a number of different contexts. In the case of a “public good” where the provider cannot exclude, a good which others provide for them- selves will also be provided to the free rider. In the public good view of charity, for example, each donor is said to have an incentive to hold down his own contribution and free ride on the redistribution from other members of the non-poor group.

Historians have examined many factors concerning American isolationism in the years 1939 to 1941. They have delved into action groups, prominent personalities, and economic and strategic rationales. Surprisingly little research, however, has been done on the role that international law played in the effort to avoid intervention. Yet here arguments on both sides were often tightly drawn and claims heavily documented, hence involving a level of debate not often seen in this period.

Volume 6, Number 1 (1982)