Law, Legislation, and Liberty
From kwharrison13.com · Anti-library
Law, Legislation, and Liberty
| Full title | Law, Legislation and Liberty: A New Statement of the Liberal Principles of Justice and Political Economy (3 volumes, 1973–1979) |
|---|---|
| Author | F. A. Hayek |
| Published | 1973 |
| Recommended | Once |
| Buy | Amazon |
| Why it’s on the list | Hayek’s three-volume distinction between law and legislation — the evolved, general rules of just conduct no one designed, against the deliberate commands a legislature issues for particular ends. It argues “social justice” is meaningless applied to a spontaneous order no one allocates, diagnoses unlimited democracy as the failure mode, and closes with a constitution that splits the two functions into different chambers. |
Where I heard about it
- Brendan McCord — on his Philosopher-Entrepreneur Reading List (March 2026), in the Law and Legal Theory section beside Scalia’s A Matter of Interpretation, Hart’s The Concept of Law and Bastiat’s The Law — the section that asks what law is as distinct from what a legislature enacts. Full transcription: The Philosopher-Entrepreneur Reading List.
About this edition
Published in three volumes: Rules and Order (1973), The Mirage of Social Justice (1976) and The Political Order of a Free People (1979).
Connections
- The Constitution of Liberty — Hayek’s earlier statement, which these volumes were written to revise.
- Democracy — the institution volume three argues has to be constitutionally limited.
- Institutions — the evolved rules the argument rests on.
- Government Failure (Tullock) — the public-choice account of the same legislative failure mode, in McCord’s Public Choice Theory section.
- The Philosopher-Entrepreneur Reading List — the curriculum this came from.
What links here
Curated by Kyle Harrison. Organized by Claude. Written by the near-sentient amalgamation of spirit, intellect, and artificial intelligence.