by Stephan Kinsella
on August 25, 2025
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by Stephan Kinsella
on August 20, 2025
Bert Schwitters alerted me to his book Liberating Liberty and upon my request, sent me a PDF. The book is apparently available only here, not on Amazon, and not in ebook form, and not available in PDF, epub, or other form online either. He describes some of his views and his book here too: Liberty and Libertarians. The book appears to have a subtitle but it is not clear what it is—perhaps “Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness and The Creator of Man,” but it’s not clear. This is obviously an amateur effort.
I wrote this back:
On your book, I honestly do not know why people would spend time compiling a message about liberty–that you will never make money on, so you are doing it only to spread the word–and then trap it behind a paywall and copyright. Why not just post it online so everyone can read it, or do you only want to reach rich westerners? I’m not criticizing, I am just continually mystified by the way some libertarians think. See: On Leading by Example and the Power of Attraction (Open Source Publishing, Creative Commons, Public Domain Publishing) and Authors: Don’t Make the Buddy Holly Mistake.
[continue reading…]
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by Stephan Kinsella
on August 18, 2025
I’m pleased to announce the results of a project I’ve been working on with other libertarians for some time: The Universal Principles of Liberty (finalized and published Aug. 14, 2025).
I’d like to explain here how this came about.
I’ve been a libertarian since I was in high school and increasingly involved over the years learning about liberty and have devoted a lot of time to developing libertarian ideas, by my speaking and writing, and even in various forms of activism. Yes, despite my regular criticisms of activists and activism, I of course have participated in activism of various types—debating with family and friends and others, voting, participating in various groups; joining the Libertarian Party years ago and now serving on its Judicial Committee. [continue reading…]
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by Stephan Kinsella
on August 16, 2025
Related:
- Dualism, Monism, Scientism, Causality, Teleology: Hoppe, Mises, Rothbard
- The Great Fractional Reserve/Freebanking Debate
- Fractional-Reserve Banking, Contracts of Deposit, and the Title-Transfer Theory of Contract
- On Coinbase, Bitcoin, Fractional-Reserve Banking, and Irregular Deposits
- UK Proposal for Banking Reform: Fractional-Reserve Banking versus Deposits and Loans
- Musings on Fractional-Reserve Banking in a Bitcoin Age; Physicalist Shock Absorber Metaphors
- Michael S. Milano, “Privacy and Fungibility: The Forgotten Virtues of Sound Money,” Mises Wire (07/05/2025)
It’s time someone do this. I was hoping someone else had or would, but I’ve given up finding anyone comprehensive and solid on this. I guess I’ll have to do it, if I find time. Maybe I can coax Bob Murphy into doing it with he: I am decent on economic methodology; he is deeper and better. We are both solid on austro-libertarianism: he is a libertarian, and I am the libertarian. And he is probably decent on law, and I am deeper and better. I may approach El Bobborino about this at some point. Or maybe Hülsmann or Hoppe. Or Konrad Graf. [continue reading…]
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by Stephan Kinsella
on August 11, 2025
When spanking and other issues are debated by libertarians, someone invariably brings up the issue of grabbing or touching someone in other contexts: for example, if you see a child or stranger about to run into traffic or into the path of a speeding bus, you might grab them to save them. Or you might have to grab or physically prevent a child from doing something harmful like sticking their hand into boiling water, and so on; you might even need to slap them to get their attention in an emergency situation. In these cases the third party is not trying to damage or punish or discipline the stranger or child; from it.
For defenders of spanking, they will mindlessly trot these non-analogous situations out in an attempt to justify spanking. [continue reading…]
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by Stephan Kinsella
on August 6, 2025
I have mentioned before my year obtaining an LL.M. in international business law at the University of London, 1991–1992, after law school. In that course I was required to take at least half my courses from King’s College London, my “base” school, and was free to take other courses from the four other University of London law schools that were then part of this program. I other half of my courses at the London School of Economics law school. My favorite course in the program was “The International Law of Natural Resources,” taught by Professor Rosalyn Higgins at LSE—now Dame Higgins and later the first woman on the International Court of Justice.
[continue reading…]
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by Stephan Kinsella
on August 5, 2025
Related:
Hoppe, The Property And Freedom Society—Reflections After Five Years:
This, then, was the ultimate reason for the breakup of the libertarian-conservative alliance accomplished with the John Randolph Club: that while the libertarians were willing to learn their cultural lesson the conservatives did not want to learn their economics.
[continue reading…]
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by Stephan Kinsella
on August 4, 2025
The business community in Texas has encouraged the State of Texas to form specialized new business trial courts as well as “the first operational appellate level business court in the United States, the Fifteenth Court of Appeals.” This is a good illustration that civilized people, and businesses, value working courts, dispute resolution and legal certainty. It also illustrates the importance of federalism and states attempting to have reliable legal systems in part to attract corporate business, relocations, and incorporation in the state. [continue reading…]
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by Stephan Kinsella
on July 31, 2025
[From my Webnote series]
Related/cited:
On Commentators and Codes in Private Law, State Law, and Libertarian Law
I’ve pointed out previously the role of commentators and codification in the private law of systems such as the Roman law, the modern European Roman-based civil law, and the Anglo-American common law, and speculated also as to the role commentators, codification, and codes would play in a completely decentralized, legislation-free libertarian private-law legal system of a free society. [continue reading…]
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by Stephan Kinsella
on July 31, 2025
Delightful discussion with Matt Sands of the “Nations of Sanity” and Adam Haman of Haman Nature, Let’s talk property rights, human liberty, and Nations of Sanity, shall we?; both friends of mine (Adam an in-person close one) whose podcasts I’ve appeared on. In fact one of them had to do with one of the issues they discussed, hostile encirclement: KOL426 | Discussing Immigration and Homesteading Donuts with Matthew Sands of Nations of Sanity. [continue reading…]
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by Stephan Kinsella
on July 30, 2025
Related:
From a libertarian friend:
Dear Mr. Kinsella
The last few days I’ve been reading your Legal Foundations of a Free Society. Since I finished reading chapter 5, “A Libertarian Theory of Punishment and Rights,” there’s something troubling me and I think the best I can do is ask you about it.
In the discussion about proportionality, you state (for example on page 102 regarding property crimes), that if, for example, the money stolen from someone is more valuable to him than to the criminal, then the punishment could be, in addition to returning the money (in this case $10,000) and making the criminal pay another $10,000, paying additional compensation for the difference in value. [continue reading…]
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by Stephan Kinsella
on July 30, 2025
A very important book was just published by Jeffrey Tucker at the Brownstone Institute: The Covid Response at Five Years: A History of the End of Civilization (2025) (pdf, with permission). From the Amazon description:
For those who lived through this period, this book is a painful but gripping read. First serialized online, it has garnered praise from the world over for its steady tone, granular detail, narrative precision, and moral passion.
The times felt like a blur because normal life was so upended in unthinkable ways. This book operates as a tool of focus as if on a camera lens, turning fuzzy images into clear pictures. Therein lies the pain. [continue reading…]
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