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Plucknett’s work provides a common-law understanding of individual rights, not in theory only, but protected through the confusing and messy evolution of courts, and their administration as they struggled to resolve real problems.… more

The Code of Hammurabi is a collection of the King of Babylon’s laws which were inscribed on stone columns towards the end of his reign. The 282 case laws include economic provisions (prices, tariffs, trade, and commercial… more

A 3 volume collection of Maitland’s shorter pieces on English law.

This two-volume set brings together a collection of writings and speeches of James Wilson, one of only six signers of both the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution, and one of the most influential members of the federal… more

A collection of eighty documents which demonstrate how local government in colonial America was the seedbed of American constitutionalism. Most of these documents, commencing with the Agreement of the Settlers at Exeter in New… more

A French version of Destutt de Tracy’s extended commentary on Montesquieu which so impressed Jefferson that he translated it himself.

A two volume edition of the classic work on English law by Blackstone. This edition is interesting because it includes the commentaries of at least 5 previous editors of Blackstone’s work along with additional notes by Sharswood, the… more

Commentary on the Law of Prize and Booty was written in justification of the capture of the Portuguese merchantman Santa Catarina in the Strait of Singapore in February 1603. The Liberty Fund edition is based on the one prepared by… more

The text, translation, and commentary have been taken from William Sharp McKechnie’s edition of 1914. The lengthly historical introduction and appendices have been removed for reasons of space. The 63 clauses are in Latin and… more

Probably written by a pupil of Aristotle, it is the first history of Athens as a model democracy, how it came into existence, and how it operated in practice.

The Constitution of England is one of the most distinguished eighteenth-century treatises on English political liberty. Like Montesquieu’s Spirit of the Laws (1748) and Blackstone’s Commentaries on the Laws of England (1765–1769), De… more

Taylor defends a strict “states rights” interpretation of the U.S. Constitution and advocates limited republican government.

Since, in Spooner’s view, slavery was both unjust and unconstitutional, men and women held in slavery had the right to flee, and other people had the right and the duty to help the runaway slaves escape to freedom. This meant… more

A 2 volume work in which Vattel explores the application of natural law to the conduct of states and sovereigns. He discusses the rights of obligation of the state itself, those of the sovereign power, the nature of good government,… more

An extremely influential Enlightenment treatise on legal reform in which Beccaria advocates the ending of torture and the death penalty. The book also contains a lengthy commentary by Voltaire which is an indication of high highly… more

Thorpe was commissioned by the U.S. Congress to edit a 7 volume collection of Colonial, Federal and State constitutions in 1906. The volumes are in alphabetical order, with Volume 1 dealing with United States-Alabama-District of… more

The Federalist, by Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, and John Jay, constitutes a text central to the American political tradition. Published in newspapers in 1787 and 1788 to explain and promote ratification of the proposed… more

Grotius’s influential argument in favor of freedom of navigation, trade, and fishing in Richard Hakluyt’s translation. The book also contains William Welwod’s critque and Grotius’s reply to Welwod.

The first edition of this book. The greatest obstacle to rule of law in our time, contends the author of this thought-provoking work, is the problem of overlegislation. In modern democratic societies, legislative bodies are… more

The greatest obstacle to rule of law in our time, contends Bruno Leoni, is the problem of overlegislation. In modern democratic societies, legislative bodies are increasingly usurping functions that were and should be exercised by… more

This edition of Grotius’ defense of the right of all nations (especially the Dutch) to use the international sea lanes for trade, was published during World War One by the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace as part of their… more

A collection of pamphlets, speeches, and other pro-ratification writings of George Washington, Benjamin Rush, Nicholas Collin, John Dickinson, James Wilson, Tench Coxe, Benjamin Franklin, Noah Webster, Roger Sherman, Fisher Ames,… more

The Carpentier Lectures delivered at Columbia University in 1911. They are an introduction to the history and ideas behind the English Common Law.

It is the thesis of this monumentally argued book that the United States Supreme Court - largely through abuses of the Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution has embarked on “a continuing revision of the Constitution, under the… more

This volume contains the text (often in both French and English) of the major conventions concerning peace and the laws of warfare from the Declaration of Paris (1856), the Geneva Convention of 1864, of the two Peace Conferences in… more

In Historical Law-Tracts, Kames combined the natural law framework that underlies his Essays on the Principles of Morality and Natural Religion with the “conjectural,” or philosophical, approach to history that would receive its… more

First published in 1895, Sir Frederick Pollock and Frederic William Maitland’s legal classic The History of English Law before the Time of Edward I expanded the work of Sir Edward Coke and William Blackstone by exploring the origins… more

Roscoe Pound, former dean of Harvard Law School, delivered a series of lectures at the University of Calcutta in 1948. In these lectures, he criticized virtually every modern mode of interpreting the law because he believed the… more

In Defense of the Constitution refutes modern critics of the Constitution who assail it as “reactionary” or “undemocratic.” The author argues that modern disciples of Progressivism are determined to centralize political control in… more

First published in 1688, Thomasius’s Institutes attempted to draw a clear distinction between natural and revealed law and to emphasize that human reason was able to know the precepts of natural law without the aid of Scripture. His… more

An edition with Latin, English translations, and extensive editorial commentary. The Institutes of Roman Law is Gaius’ best known work which became the authoritative legal text during the late Roman Empire. It was the first… more

A series of lectures given in the William L. Storrs lecture series in 1921 at the Yale University Law School.

Dicey’s most famous work on English constitutional law in which he defended the idea of the sovereignty of parliament under an independent judiciary and the rule of law.

Liberty Fund’s edition of Dicey’s most famous work on English constitutional law in which he defended the idea of the sovereignty of parliament under an independent judiciary and the rule of law.

Author of The State, Anthony de Jasay, has been described as one of the few genuinely original minds in modern political philosophy. He breaks new ground with Justice and Its Surroundings - a new collection of essays that seek to… more

The translation by the Foundation of Economic Education of one of Bastiat’s most famous pamphlets, written as part of his opposition to the growth of socialism in France in the 1840s and where he states that “the state is the great… more

Although this is entitled volume 1 and a proposed list of contents for a volume 2 was appended to the work, no volume 2 ever appeared. Spooner takes a strong position on the property right of an author to his ideas in perpetuity with… more

A republication of the 1797 translation of Vattel’s work, along with new English translations of 3 early essays.

Read the Liberty Classic on this title from Law & Liberty

An influential English translation of a work which had a profound impact on the ideas of the American founders. Chitty brought it to the attention of 19th century English readers and it was brought up to date with additional notes by… more

One of Pollock’s more substantial works which also contains his draft on a law of torts prepared for the government of India.

The sequel to his more famous book on *Ancient Law” in which Maine examines kinship, tribal society, early legal remedies and sovereignty.

A series of lectures Dicey gave at Harvard Law School on the rise of collectivism in England during the 19th century and its impact on legislation.

This volume brings together a series of lectures A. V. Dicey first gave at Harvard Law School on the influence of public opinion in England during the nineteenth century and its impact on legislation. It is an accessible attempt by… more

A letter which first appeared in Benjamin Tucker’s journal Liberty in 1882. Bayard was a Democratic Senator from the state of Delaware who believed that enlightened people like himself were the fittest to govern in the US. Spooner… more

The natural law theory of Johann Gottlieb Heineccius was one of the most influential to emerge from the early German Enlightenment. Heineccius continued and, in important respects, modified the ideas of his predecessors, Samuel… more

Originally published in German in 1936, The Natural Law is the first work to clarify the differences between traditional natural law as represented in the writings of Cicero, Aquinas, and Hooker and the revolutionary doctrines of… more

Even this is entitled “The First” it is the only part Spooner published. It was meant to be the opening section of a much larger treatise on natural law. It is interesting because Spooner outlines the basic principles of the thinking… more

Carmichael was a Scottish jurist and philosopher who became the first Professor of Moral Philosophy at the University of Glasgow in 1727. His writings on natural rights theory, theology, and logic were very influential.

This 1887 translation contains Kant’s General Introduction to the Metaphysic of Morals and both parts of The Science of Right.

The editor of this volume, Michael J. Seidler, describes this work of Pufendorf as “an account of German constitutional law detailing the historical relations between the Emperor and the Estates as well as an examination of the… more

Principles of Equity is Kames’s most lasting contribution to jurisprudence. He sought to explain the distinction between the nature of equity and common law and to address related questions, such as whether equity should be bound by… more

The basis of this version of The Principles of Natural and Politic Law is Thomas Nugent’s 1763 English translation. The first scholarly work on Burlamaqui was written by an American, M. Ray Forrest Harvey, who in 1937 argued that… more

A 3 volume collection of the records of the Federal Convention which was held in Philadelphia between May and September 1787. The sessions were secret but the proceedings were reconstructed from notes kept by the official secretary… more

Grotius’s magnum opus on international law and the laws of war and peace. He wrote this volume while the Thirty Years’ War raged around him in the hope that rational human beings might be able to agree to legal limits on war’s… more

Grotius’s Rights of War and Peace is a classic of modern public international law which lays the foundation for a universal code of law and which strongly defends the rights of individual agents - states as well as private persons -… more

This is a critical collection of essays on the origin and nature of the idea of liberty. The authors explore the development of English ideas of liberty and the relationship those ideas hold to modern conceptions of rule of law.

A massive three volume collection of essays by leading American and English legal experts which surveys the entire body of Anglo-American law.

A 3 vol. set of The Selected Writings. Vol. 1 contains a long introduction by the editor and 13 parts of the Reports. Vol. 2 contains Coke’s Speech at Norwich, excerpts from the small treatises, and excerpts from the 4 parts of the … more

The bulk of the selections in this volume are from A Treatise on Laws and God the Lawgiver (1612). In the Treatise Suárez presented a systematic account of human moral activity in all its dimensions, synthesizing the entire… more

Written for the layman as well as the attorney, The Story of Law is the only complete outline history of the law ever published. Zane lucidly describes the growth and improvement of the law over thousands of years, and he points out… more

A two volume collection of Bryce’s essays and articles on the Roman and British Empires, constitutional history and theory, obedience, sovereignty, the law of nature , and legal history.

A 2 volume work which examines the power of the government over individual personal and property rights under the US constitution. It is an expansion of a 1 vol. work on Limitations of Police Power published originally in 1886. Vol.… more

This was Pufendorf’s first work, published in 1660. Its appearance inaugurated the modern natural-law movement in the German-speaking world. The work also established Pufendorf as a key figure and laid the foundations for his major… more

Spooner challenged the US postal monopoly by starting his own mail company to deliver letters and by writing a short book arguing that it was wrong on legal and constitutional grounds.

View of the Constitutionwas the first extended, systematic commentary on the United States Constitution after its ratification and later its amendment by the Bill of Rights. As Clyde N. Wilson notes, “Tucker is the exponent of… more

The Whole Duty of Man (first published in Latin in 1673), was among the first works to suggest a purely conventional basis for natural law. Rejecting scholasticism’s metaphysical theories, Pufendorf found the source of natural law in… more