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I just came across this draft article in my files. I believe it was written in 2005, as a followup to A Libertarian Defense of Kelo and Limited Federal PowerLewRockwell.com, June 27, 2005. I may not agree with everything in it, and can’t recall why I never published it. It is also not complete–I apparently meant to add some more links and research, and to stitch together a few sections. I may do this at some point. But here it is for now, in its draft form, for what it’s worth.

 

Judicial Activism and the Presumption of Unconstitutionality 

by N. Stephan Kinsella

Draft, July 2005

A recent Reason article by Damon W. Root carries a refreshingly frank title: Unleash the Judges: The libertarian case for judicial activism. Root calls for “a principled form of libertarian judicial activism—that is, one that consistently upholds individual rights while strictly limiting state power,” in contrast to conservatives who “exalt[] the will of the majority over the liberties of unpopular minorities.” [continue reading…]

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Based on a post from the Mises Blog, 5/22/2009 (archived comments below). The original post is somehow mangled and I am unable to edit it. This was based on an email I sent to Tulane law professor Professor A.N. Yiannopoulos, a legal giant in Louisiana and civil law scholarship, whose brilliant magnum opus, Louisiana Civil Law Treatise, Property, has influenced my own work. Below is an edited version of the note. The notes refer to my friend Greg Rome, a fellow libertarian and Louisiana attorney with whom I co-authored Louisiana Civil Law Dictionary (Quid Pro Books, 2011).

Note: See also Inability to Abandon Property in the Civil Law.

Update: Penner on Intellectual Property, Monopolies, and Property:

Do we have the right to abandon the things we own? Under the civil common law,6 property cannot be abandoned de jure, if that means that an owner may by his act alone destroy his title in a thing. An owner may only relinquish possession of a thing, whereupon any subsequent person’s possession may give him a good root of title. Although the legal view respecting title might suggest otherwise, it is submitted that we do have the right to abandon property.

6. Abandonment is recognized under the criminal law of theft-one cannot steal that which has been abandoned: Hudson 1984 [Hudson, A. H. (1984), ʻIs Divesting Abandonment Possible at Common Law?ʼ (1984) 100 Law Quarterly Review 110.].

Homesteading, Abandonment, and Unowned Land in the Civil Law

05/22/2009

May 21, 2009

Professor Yiannopoulos,

We’ve corresponded before, and I believe you know my friend Greg Rome. I wanted to write you regarding some issues concerning the civil code and property, in case you might be interested in sharing any thoughts you have on this matter.

As you may recall, I’m a libertarian and intensely interested in various normative theories regarding property rights, including justifications thereof, Lockean-type homesteading theories, and Austrian economics as related thereto. I have found your own formulations in this regard (e.g. in sec. 1 of your Property treatise)–e.g., your discussion of the nature of property, including its scarcity–to be exquisite and to highlight the essential compatibility of the basic notions of civilian property with the Lockean-libertarian conception thereof, despite the legal positivism and deviations of the civilian system. [continue reading…]

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Kinsella Ranked #113 Most Influential in Law, 1990–2020

As noted here, the academic ranking site Academic Influence has ranked Professor Hoppe the 36th most influential philosopher between 1990–2020. I did a similar search for Law, 1990–2020, and surprisingly I turned up #113, right after Eric Posner (Justice Scalia was #1). [PDF]

Update: now they have me as #7556 overall [as of March 24, 2025, #4525, and #126 in international law].

See also Best 100 Libertarian Podcasts.

[continue reading…]

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New Book: Communication and Libertarianism

coverCommunication and Libertarianism, by Pavel Slutskiy (Springer, 2021), has recently been published. It’s available in kindle and paper here, but unfortunately at ridiculous academic publisher prices designed to make it impossible for most people to read the book.

As David Gordon explains in his endorsement:

“This is an outstanding contribution to both libertarian political philosophy and communication theory. It is far and away the most comprehensive work on communication issues in libertarian theory ever published. The author has integrated successfully the libertarian insights of Mises, Rothbard, Block, Kinsella and others with the philosophy of language as developed by Austin, Searle and Grice. He has done so in a unique and unprecedented way. The book would appeal to students and scholars interested in libertarian theory and more generally, to philosophers and political scientists interested in high-level scholarship.” —David Gordon, libertarian philosopher and intellectual historian, Ludwig von Mises Institute

[continue reading…]

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LibertarianGuide Wiki and Links

I used to list various links; archived here. I the moved it to Wikispaces, for the Libertarian Guide Wiki (archived; the service is now defunct). I reprint the archive.org links below (many out of date):

LIBERTARIANGUIDE WIKI

LIBERTARIAN RESOURCES AND LINK GUIDE

A Comprehensive, Dynamically Updated List of Libertarian Resources

JUMPS

libertarianguide/home#top-pol-eco-paleo|Top Political/Economic/Paleo | Libertarianism and Political Theory (BibliographiesForeignAnarcho-Capitalism) | Austrian Economics/Other Economics | Online Books/Texts | libertarianguide/home#rand|Philosophy/Ayn Rand/Objectivism
libertarianguide/home#gen-soc|General/Social Matters/Articles related to Libertarianism | Law and Legal Matters | Business/Finance | Art/Mvsic
libertarianguide/home#literature|Literature/Fiction/Sci-Fi | Religion | libertarianguide/home#science|Science/Nuclear/Dissident Physics (Dissident Physics/Relativity | Nuclear/Energy | Singularity/Miscellaneous)
| [[libertarianguide/home#cranks|Cranks/Conspiracy Nuts/Militia-nuts & “Common Law Court” nuts]] | New Libertarian Nations | Miscellaneous | libertarianguide/home#ref|Reference/News/Shopping | HTML, Web, Computer Services | Blogs and Blog Resources | libertarianguide/home#humor|Humor/Cranky/Weird | Classical liberal and Libertarian classics | History | Movies

Top Political/Economic/Paleo

Libertarianism

Libertarianism-Bibliographies

Libertarianism-Foreign

Anarcho-Capitalism

 


IP Links and Resources |
IP and Patent Practice and Practical/Legal Resources |

Austrian Economics/Other Economics

General –> Austrian Economics Institutes/Groups/Journals

Other Economics

Online Books/Texts/Journals

Personal Websites–Economics

Philosophy/Ayn Rand/Objectivism

General/Social Matters/Articles related to Libertarianism

Law and Legal Matters

Business/Finance

Art/Mvsic

Literature/Fiction/Sci-Fi

Religion

Science/Nuclear/Dissident Physics
Dissident Physics/Relativity

Nuclear/Energy

Singularity/Miscellaneous

Cranks/Conspiracy Nuts/Militia-nuts & “Common Law Court” nuts

New Libertarian Nations

 

Libertarian-Related Blogs

 

Interesting Columnists

Humor/Cranky/Weird

Other Blogs & Blog Resources

Law-Related Blogs

Reference/News/Shopping

HTML, Web, Computer Services

See KinsellaLaw HTML/Web/Computer links |

Blogs and Blog Resources**

Blog Resources

Cassical liberal and Libertarian classics

Classical liberal view of history

Movies

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Libertarian Legal Theory with Stephan KinsellaI 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). [continue reading…]

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Libertarian Legal Theory with Stephan KinsellaI presented a 6-lecture Mises Academy course in 2011, “Libertarian Legal Theory: Property, Conflict, and Society.” I thought some might be interested in seeing the Mid-Term Test and Final Exam used during the course. These are below. A version with the correct answers indicated may be found here (warning: do not click this link if you do not want the answers spoiled).

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

[continue reading…]

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Lawrence Lepard’s 2008 Ron Paul Ads

Sent to me by Lawrence Lepard. He told me these ads cost about $80k each.  PDFs: USA Today ad; NYTimes ad.

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Taxing Astronauts and the President (2006)

From Mises Blog, July 12, 2006

Taxing Astronauts and the President

07/12/2006

Maybe some tax expert can set me straight on the following assumptions, but from what I can tell, federal income tax law technically should make it virtually impossible to have a space program and to have anyone but a billionaire as president. Bear with me. [continue reading…]

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Just came across this article I wrote 10 years ago for the Christian Science Monitor, that I had totally forgotten about. (Note: I did not choose the title. I would not use the term “thief” to refer to anyone who uses ideas of others. See Stop calling patent and copyright “property”; stop calling copying “theft” and “piracy” (Jan. 9, 2012).)

Libertarian guru Andrew Galambos’ intellectual property beliefs were so extreme that he paid royalties to the descendants of Thomas Paine every time he used the world “liberty.” But did he steal his radical ideas from someone else?

A bust of Thomas Paine atop his monument in New Rochelle, N.Y. libertarian guru Andrew J. Galambos’ intellectual property views were so extreme that he paid royalties to the descendants of Paine every time he used the word “liberty,” which he claimed was coined by Paine.

Joe Sohm Visions of America/Newscom/File

Christian Science Monitor

October 28, 2011

By Stephan Kinsella

Guest blogger

I’ve written before about the quirky scientistic California libertarian guru Andrew J. Galambos, and his extreme, crazy IP ideas. 1 Galambos believed that man has property rights in his own life (primordial property) and in all “non-procreative derivatives of his life”—the “first derivatives” of a man’s life are his thoughts and ideas—these are “primary property.” Since action is based on primary property (ideas), actions are owned as well; this is referred to as “liberty.” Secondary derivatives, such as land, televisions, and other tangible goods, are produced by ideas and action. 2 [continue reading…]

  1. See Galambos and Other Nuts; also Galambosian IP Recursion; “Ideas Are Free: The Case Against Intellectual Property.” []
  2. See also On Andrew Galambos and His Primary Property Ideas, by Alvin Lowi, Jr. []
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On Jonah Goldberg’s Youthful Phase

Stephan Kinsella, “On Jonah Goldberg’s Youthful Phase,” LewRockwell.com (June 27, 2001).

This piece now includes some broken links. In particular, the piece I was replying to is now here: Jonah Goldberg, “The Libertarian Lobe,” National Review (June 22, 2001).

See also my post I hereby expel Bill Maher from the libertarian movement.

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I started this draft article years ago but never finished it. Including it here for google to index for me.

See also Constitutional Structures in Defense of Freedom (ASC 1998) and Structural Safeguards to Limit Legislation.

Down with the Bill of Rights: Heller and the Central States Cheerleaders

Stephan Kinsella

Draft

June 2008

 

[T]he rule of law is a myth and like all myths, it is designed to serve an emotive, rather than cognitive, function. The purpose of a myth is not to persuade one’s reason, but to enlist one’s emotions in support of an idea. And this is precisely the case for the myth of the rule of law; its purpose is to enlist the emotions of the public in support of society’s political power structure.

John Hasnas

[continue reading…]

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