Is positive law always a force for good? Professor Richard Epstein of NYU School of Law argues that the positive law works for the good when it follows natural law principles and that natural law gives us a powerful framework to criticize particular legal systems (such as those permitting slavery).
Professor Epstein, in this series on the Common Law, provides an alternative to the conventional view that property rights are arbitrarily created by the state, and therefore can be changed at will by the state. A few simple rules, he argues, are universal principles of social organization, consistent across time and culture, which form the basis of social gains.
Professor Epstein is the inaugural Laurence A. Tisch Professor of Law at NYU School of Law, a Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution, and Professor of Law Emeritus and a senior lecturer at the University of Chicago.
Subscribe to the series’ playlist:
Links
Richard Epstein: Simple Rules for a Complex World
The Myth of “Natural Law”
Justice Story, Slavery and the Natural Law Foundations of American Constitutionalism
Barney Reynolds: Natural Law versus Positivism: The Fundamental Conflict
Legal Positivism and Natural Law Theory
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