I presented a 6-lecture Mises Academy course in 2011, “Libertarian Legal Theory: Property, Conflict, and Society,” and provided the Mid-Term Test and Final Exam used during the course here: “Libertarian Legal Theory: Property, Conflict, and Society”: Mid-Term Test and Final Exam (Mises Academy 2011). The questions, with answers in bold, are highlighted below.
WARNING: Do not read further if you do not want to see the Answer Key. If you want to see the tests without the Answer Key, see “Libertarian Legal Theory: Property, Conflict, and Society”: Mid-Term Test and Final Exam (Mises Academy 2011).
LIBERTARIAN LEGAL THEORY
Mid-term Test, February 2011
Professor: Stephan Kinsella
Mises Academy – Winter 2011
(1) His/her image is an inspiration for this course’s ad:
(A) Ulpian
(B) Papinian
(C) Sir Edward Coke
(D) Murray Rothbard
(E) Eric Dondero
(2) The classic formulation of justice is:
(A) “Justice is the desire to respect property rights.”
(B) “Justice is in the eye of the beholder.”
(C) “Justice is the constant and perpetual wish to render every one his due.”
(3) Roman emperor who had Roman law codified:
(A) Augustus Caesar
(B) Justinian
(C) Tiberius
(D) Hans-Hermann Hoppe
(4) Which libertarian does not tend to talk in terms of rights and the non-aggression principle?
(A) Murray Rothbard
(B) Milton Friedman
(C) Hans-Hermann Hoppe
(D) None of the above
(5) A property right is a right to:
(A) the right to maintain the value of one’s property
(B) the right to the purchasing power of money
(C) the physical integrity of an owned thing(D) none of the above
(6) The correlative of a right is a…
(A) duty
(B) positive right
(C) legal precept
(D) ancillary condition
(7) Select the true statement:
(A) All immoral actions are rights violations
(B) Some immoral actions are rights violations
(C) All rights violations are moral
(D) None of the above
(8) You own the value of your property:
(A) True
(B) False
(9) Modern libertarianism is approximately how old?
(A) 17 years
(B) 50 years
(C) 350 years
(D) 5000 years
(10) Variants of or precursors to modern radical libertarianism do NOT include:
(A) classical liberalism
(B) communitarianism
(C) minarchism
(D) none of the above
(11) Classic “test” of libertarian views:
(A) The Knapp Cylinder
(B) The Rothbardian Litmus
(C) The Nolan Chart
(D) The Randian “Audit”
(12) The source of rights is:
(A) the UN Declaration of Rights
(B) the Constitution
(C) Chuck Norris
(D) None of the above
(13) The is-ought problem is usually attributed to:
(A) John Locke
(B) David Hume
(C) Francis Bacon
(D) Francis Drake
(E) Kevin Bacon
(F) Chuck Norris
(G) None of the above
(14) Which thinker is more explicitly consequentialist:
(A) Ayn Rand
(B) Murray Rothbard
(C) Randy Barnett
(15) The quote by the Roman jurist that your Professor liked:
(A) “it is easier to commit murder than to justify it”
(B) “it is easier to justify murder than to commit it”
(C) some men need killing, but “there never was a horse that needed stealing”
(16) Your professor criticized what aspect of Milton Friedman’s argument for liberty?
(A) “Values are subjective and therefore laws cannot embrade them”
(B) “Overreliance on Coasean “transaction costs””
(C) “We must have the Lockean Proviso”
(D) “We cannot know what is right and wrong”
(17) Scarcity is a necessary condition for the emergence of
(A) dispute resolution
(B) aggression
(C) property rights
(D) all of the above
(18) Categories of action do NOT include:
(A) causality
(B) opportunity cost
(C) profit and loss
(D) hermeneutics
(19) The Rothbardian idea that relates to the nature and extent of legitimate homesteading is:
(A) Voegelinian “Gnosticism”
(B) the relevant technological unit 1
(C) the Eye of Amagatto
(D) the evenly rotating economy
(20) Under libertarianism, there can be no positive obligations
(A) True
(B) False
(C) none of the above
(21) Libertarianism is compatible with which aspect of legal positivism:
(A) we can identify a law as a law even if it is unjust
(B) the only valid law is one issued by an authorized law maker
(C) none of the above
(22) Which legal systems are more similar from the libertarian perspective?
(A) Roman law and common law
(B) Roman law and civil law
(C) Common law and civil law
(D) All of the above
(23) Which legal theorist was NOT discussed in class
(A) Bruno Leoni
(B) Ronald Dworkin
(C) Giovanni Sartori
(D) Oliver Wendell Holmes
LIBERTARIAN LEGAL THEORY
Final Exam, March 2011
Professor: Stephan Kinsella
Mises Academy – Winter 2011
(1) The Paris Convention (1883) is an international treaty concerning:
(A) Patents
(B) Copyrights
(C) Trademarks
(D) Trade secrets
(2) Select the most accurate statement:
(A) others’ property rights place limits on your property rights
(B) when property rights conflict, choose the owner closest to the source
(C) others’ property rights limits what actions of yours are permissible
(D) property rights obtain unless they conflict with more basic human rights
(3) John Locke and the Founders viewed IP primarily as:
(A) a policy tool
(B) a natural right
(C) a policy to be regulated by the states
(4) An agreement under Rothbardian-libertarian theory is:
(A) one or more related transfers of title to alienable resources
(B) a piece of paper having sufficient notarial endorsements
(C) a solemn reflection of the will as crystallized in expressions of tantandem
(D) mutually obligatory binding promises of performance
(5) According to Hessen, which economic actor is the passive shareholder most similar to for purposes of limited liability:
(A) the general partner of a limited partnership
(B) the abstaining director of a joint stock company
(C) the limited partner of a limited partnership
(D) none of the above
(6) The US Constitution explicitly authorizes which types of IP:
(A) patent, copyright, and trademark
(B) patent, trade secret, and trademark
(C) patent and copyright
(D) patent, trademark, and boat hull designs
(7) A recent addition to trademark law is:
(A) antidilution rights
(B) moral rights
(C) boat hull designs
(D) database rights
(8) The conventional view is that the following aspects of the modern corporation are privileges granted by the state:
(A) legal personality, perpetual duration, and limited liability
(B) legal personality, double taxation, and limited liability
(C) the entity theory, limited liability, and “inherence”
(D) entity status, limited partner status, and the business judgment rule
(E) none of the above
(9) If you write a novel, to make it subject to copyright protection you must:
(A) Put a copyright notice on it
(B) Register it with the Copyright Office
(C) Put a copyright notice on it AND Register it with the Copyright Office
(D) None of the above
(10) A borrows $1000 from B on day 1 and agrees to repay B $1100 in a year. A’s inability to pay B $1100 on the due date implies (according to your Professor’s views):
(A) theft of $1100 on the due date
(B) retroactive theft of $1000 on day 1
(C) debtor’s prison for A is justified
(D) none of the above
(11) This type of argument for IP says that patent and copyright law produce net wealth in the form of innovation and creation:
(A) Deontological
(B) Habermasian
(C) Utilitarian/consequentialist
(D) Randian/Schulmanian
(12) Which one is not a corollary or type of physical aggression:
(A) fraud
(B) theft
(C) stalking
(D) defamation
(13) Which types of IP rights are governed mostly by state law as opposed to federal law (in the US):
(A) copyright
(B) patent
(C) trademark
(D) trade secret
(14) According to Hessen/Rothbard, who should be liable for torts committed by employees of a corporation:
(A) vendors who supplied the key means
(B) the employee
(C) shareholders who choose not to refrain from voting for directors
(D) all of the above
(15) Copyright law may be used to censor the publication or distribution of a book or movie:
(A) True
(B) False
(16) According to your Professor, A should be liable for B’s direct actions in which situation:
(A) A pays B to murder C
(B) A coerces B to murder C
(C) A uses B as a means to murder C
(D) all of the above
(17) Nonscarce goods include:
(A) Fire and mud pies
(B) Fire and people
(C) Recipes and images
(D) Knowledge and factories
(18) The holder of a patent on a life saving drug:
(A) Can stop competitors from making it, but only if it can make enough to satisfy demand
(B) Can demand “reasonable royalties” from competitors making the drug
(C) Can stop competitors from making it, even if it can’t make enough to satisfy demand
(D) Can petition the FDA to require “reasonable royalties” from competitors making the drug
(E) All of the above
(F) None of the above
(19) Which statement is false:
(A) not all agreements result in contracts
(B) a contractual obligation “to do” even in conventional legal systems can usually be viewed as a transfer of title to property
(C) agreement = contract
(D) none of the above
(20) Sources of legitimate property rights include:
(A) bequest and production
(B) division of labor, conquest, and the statute of limitations
(C) original appropriation and contracting
(D) homesteading and rearrangement
(21) Wealth results from:
(A) ex ante catallactics and labor
(B) Misesian calculation applied to accounting
(C) homesteading, contracting, and transforming owned resources
(22) Speech can never play a role in violating individual rights
(A) True
(B) False
(23) Production involves:
(A) transforming existing owned resources into a more valuable arrangement
(B) creating new property rights by the appropriate acts of registration
(C) applying the division of labor to catallactic emoluments
(D) none of the above
- See n. 5 of Kinsella, “On the Obligation to Negotiate, Compromise, and Arbitrate.” [↩]
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