Legal System

Abstract: This paper, by the late Bruno Leoni, was originally published in the Italian journal Il Politico in 1966. In the article, Leoni reviews H.L.A. Hart’s The Concept of Law (1961). Hart first analyzes the concept of law by resorting to the classical concept of “obligation.” But he later tries a “fresh start” by resorting to the concept of “secondary rules.” In his review, Leoni argues that the former attempt is confronted with serious difficulties, and that the latter attempt (to which professor Hart possibly resorts in view of overcoming some of said difficulties) is ultimately inconsistent with the former.

In a free society, Mr. Grushevski has every right to be entrepreneurial and to start a restaurant that only hires men who want to serve food in tank tops and shorts.

In the case of downloads, the great hunt promises to cripple the Internet. And HADOPI is only one of the state's tentacles.

The costs of the persecution of bingo operators are not limited to the financial burden on taxpayers but also include loss of individual liberty and the unintended consequences, which are difficult to quantify. Citizens, no matter how rich or poor, have the right to make bad decisions.

When prices are fixed, and labor conditions are set by law, an employer can indulge his racist preferences without receiving his capitalist comeuppance.

Boulton and Watt's refusal to issue licenses allowing other engine makers to employ the separate-condenser principle clearly retarded the development and introduction of improvements.

No, the authors are not really Austrian, and I'm not even sure that they can be called libertarians, but they understand the competitive process in ways that would make Hayek and Mises proud.

Sponsored by the Mises Institute and held at the College of Charleston in South Carolina; 7-9 April 1995.

Sponsored by the Mises Institute and held at the College of Charleston in South Carolina; 7-9 April 1995.

Sponsored by the Mises Institute and held at the College of Charleston in South Carolina; 7-9 April 1995.