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May 10, 2018|Edmund Burke, integralism, Natural Law, Ordered Liberty

Why “Liberalism” Needs Natural Law

by Samuel Gregg|

Sarioz/Shutterstock.com
The liberal order depends upon natural law, and integralist critics of liberalism make a mistake in viewing natural reason as a political liability.

May 1, 2018|

France’s Psychodrama of 1968

by Daniel J. Mahoney|

"Choses vues en mai," "Things Seen in May," by Jean Helion, 1968-69 (alamy.com)
Those who loathe and those who celebrate May 1968 agree it was a defining moment for Western democracy in its late modern form.

Responses

’68 and Intimations of the Transcendent

by David Walsh

We ought to admit that the rudderless youth were not entirely mistaken in perceiving the blankness of the upbringing their elders had provided for them.

The Ironic Legacy of France’s Failed Revolution

by Alan Charles Kors

The disillusionment of 1968 created space for a richer diversity of serious thought.

Les Soixante-Huitards: Sex, Drugs, and Lame Poster Art

by Theodore Dalrymple

“The events” served to fix in the popular mind the romantic notion that adolescence is the high point of any human existence.

France’s Psychodrama: Daniel Mahoney Responds to His Critics

by Daniel J. Mahoney

Nihilism is as much of a threat as totalitarianism ever was.

January 8, 2018|Antonin Scalia, Conservatism, Constitutionalism, culture, ideas in profile, Ordered Liberty, permanent things, Richard Posner, Roger Scruton

Sir Roger to the Rescue

by Stephen Presser|

Scruton provides timely advice to conservatives about how to defend ordered liberty.

January 5, 2015|

Where Did the Noble Lawyer Go?: Looking for Cicero in the Boardroom or on the Billboard

by Stephen M. Sheppard|

American actor Gregory Peck, as Atticus Finch, stands in a courtroom in a scene from director Robert Mulligan's film, 'To Kill A Mockingbird,' 1962. Actor Gregory Peck died June 12, 2003 at age 87 of natural causes in his Los Angeles, California home. (Photo by Universal Studios/Courtesy of Getty Images)
Debates about the principles of law and justice remain essential for any defense of ordered liberty.

Responses

Teaching the Law’s Moral Purposes

by R.H. Helmholz

I am an admirer of Steve Sheppard and of his scholarship. His book on the ethical obligations of lawyers is not just as a reminder of the necessity for lawyers to comply with lawyerly standards. More than formal compliance with the canons of ethics is needed today.[1] Serious consideration of the true moral purposes of…

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Wherefore Art Thou Cicero?

by Steven Grosby

With “Where did the Noble Lawyer Go?: Looking for Cicero in the Boardroom and on the Billboard,” Professor Stephen Sheppard has provided us with a provocative, as one expects from the editor of the three-volume Selected Works of Sir Edward Coke,[1] rumination on the decline of the legal profession. He contrasts the lawyer of today…

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Cicero, Demythologized and Disenchanted, and Still a Voice Worth Heeding

by Charles J. Reid, Jr.

I am fascinated with Stephen Sheppard's essay on Cicero and the modern American lawyer.  In a sense, he is calling me back to those ideals I held so dear as an entering one-L a long time ago. Cicero, it is not too strong to say this, is one of the reasons I went to law school.…

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Rebuilding a Ciceronian Legal Culture

by Stephen M. Sheppard

It is daunting to be read by genuine scholars whom one admires.  The thoughtful comments, elaborations, and criticism of Stephen Grosby, Charles J. Reid, and Dick Helmholtz have surely given the reader much more wisdom and provocation than did my essay. Despite the many truths of my commentators’ criticism, Liberty Law Forum and its editor Richard…

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February 2, 2014|

The Institutions of American Liberty

by Ted McAllister|

I write of an American tradition of liberty rather than of Liberty as such. I write not of the liberty we would find behind a veil of ignorance nor of the undiluted, principled, liberty some moralists consume straight up. I focus instead on a heritage of liberty, forged out of the particular and peculiar experiences of American history, protected and internalized by a panoply of institutions, and that has produced an American temperament infused with affection and admiration for its unique inheritance. American liberty inspires gratitude and a spirit of improvement that is constructive rather than revolutionary. Unlike Liberty as…

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Responses

The Revolution in Ideas and Practice That Elevated American Liberty

by C. Bradley Thompson

Ted McAllister and the Liberty Law Forum at Liberty Fund are to be thanked for resurrecting a vitally important but seemingly forgotten, or, at least, neglected topic. The subject of McAllister’s essay is the American tradition of liberty, which he contrasts with perfect or abstract liberty. He asks two important questions: What is distinctive about…

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The Distinctive Spheres of American Liberty and the State

by Steven Grosby

“The Institutions of American Liberty” is a nicely written and, for the most part, compelling encomium to the tradition of American liberty and the institutions upon which it rests. The author of this piece, as so many following Tocqueville have observed, rightly notes that American history displays “a fervor of institution building by people who…

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Piety, Benevolence, Self-Government, and Free Institutions

by William Dennis

The Rev. Timothy Dwight (President of Yale, 1795-1817, leading Congregational and Federalist thinker, enemy of Thomas Jefferson), wrote about the three great good works: piety, benevolence, and self-government. Self-government meant the well ordering of one’s life so he could live as a free and responsible human being. If a person was well self-governed, he would…

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The Extinction of American Liberty? Ted McAllister responds:

by Ted McAllister

Lamentably, I find myself in general agreement with the thoughtful commentaries on my essay by the three respondents, C. Bradley Thompson, Steven Grosby, and William Dennis. This is not to say that underneath this broad consensus there aren’t serious and enjoyable differences of philosophy that warrant sustained engagement. Taken as a whole, the body of…

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March 26, 2013|Becoming Europe, Economic Freedom, Entitlements, fiscal policy, Free Markets, Ordered Liberty, Political Economy, Samuel Gregg

Becoming Europe

by Samuel Gregg|

This Liberty Law Talk is a discussion with Samuel Gregg about his most recent book, Becoming Europe: Economic Decline, Culture, and How America Can Avoid a European Future. Recent events in Cyprus, to say nothing of the economic stasis that envelopes much of Europe, highlight America's need to think deeply about the current trajectory of our fiscal and entitlements policies, among other weighty matters. Gregg's book, however, is not merely a rehashing of dire spending problems and bankrupting entitlements and the predictably poorer future this promises, but is a discussion of the social and cultural commitments that are required to…

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Book Reviews

A Mirror of the 20th-Century Congress

by Joseph Postell

Wright undermined the very basis of his local popularity—the decentralized nature of the House—by supporting reforms that gave power to the party leaders.

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The Graces of Flannery O'Connor

by Henry T. Edmondson III

O'Connor's correspondence is a goldmine of piercing insight and startling reflections on everything from literature to philosophy to raising peacocks.

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Liberty Classics

Rereading Politica in the Post-Liberal Moment

by Glenn A. Moots

Althusius offers a rich constitutionalism that empowers persons to thrive alongside one another in deliberate communities.

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James Fenimore Cooper and the American Experiment

by Melissa Matthes

In The American Democrat, James Fenimore Cooper defended democracy against both mob rule and majority tyranny.

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Podcasts

Stuck With Decadence

A discussion with Ross Douthat

Ross Douthat discusses with Richard Reinsch his new book The Decadent Society.

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Can the Postmodern Natural Law Remedy Our Failing Humanism?

A discussion with Graham McAleer

Graham McAleer discusses how postmodern natural law can help us think more coherently about human beings and our actions.

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Did the Civil Rights Constitution Distort American Politics?

A discussion with Christopher Caldwell

Christopher Caldwell discusses his new book, The Age of Entitlement.

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America, Land of Deformed Institutions

A discussion with Yuval Levin

Yuval Levin pinpoints that American alienation and anger emerges from our weak political, social, and religious institutions.

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About

Law & Liberty’s focus is on the classical liberal tradition of law and political thought and how it shapes a society of free and responsible persons. This site brings together serious debate, commentary, essays, book reviews, interviews, and educational material in a commitment to the first principles of law in a free society. Law & Liberty considers a range of foundational and contemporary legal issues, legal philosophy, and pedagogy.

The opinions expressed on Law & Liberty are solely those of the contributors to the site and do not reflect the opinions of Liberty Fund.
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