Open Daily: 10am - 10pm | Alley door pickup 10am - 7pm 3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
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  • Open Daily: 10am - 10pm
    Alley-side Pickup: 10am - 7pm

    3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
    612-822-4611

Open Daily: 10am - 10pm | Alley-side Pickup: 10am - 7pm
3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
612-822-4611
Structure of Liberty: Justice and the Rule of Law (Revised)

Structure of Liberty: Justice and the Rule of Law (Revised)

Barnett, Randy E.

Paperback

PhilosophyGeneral LawGeneral Political Science

ISBN10: 019870092X
ISBN13: 9780198700920
Publisher: Oxford University Press (UK)
Published: Feb 19 2014
Pages: 400
Weight: 1.25
Height: 0.90 Width: 6.00 Depth: 9.10
Language: English
In this book, legal scholar Randy Barnett elaborates and defends the fundamental premise of the Declaration of Independence: that all persons have a natural right to pursue happiness so long as they respect the equal rights of others, and that governments are only justly established to secure these rights.

Drawing upon insights from philosophy, economics, political theory, and law, Barnett explains why, when people pursue happiness while living in society with each other, they confront the pervasive social problems of knowledge, interest and power. These problems are best dealt with by ensuring the liberty of the people to pursue their own ends, but this liberty is distinguished from license by certain fundamental rights and procedures associated with the classical liberal conception of justice and the rule of law. He then outlines the constitutional framework that is needed to put these principles into practice.

In a new Afterword to this second edition, Barnett elaborates on this thesis by responding to several important criticisms of the original work. He then explains how this libertarian approach is more modest than either the social justice theories of the left or the legal moralism of the right.

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