Frederic Bastiat, who was born two hundred years ago, was a leader of the French laissez-faire tradition in the first half of the nineteenth century. He was influenced by Cobden's Anti-Corn Law League and became a convinced free trader. Joseph Schumpeter described Bastiat as 'the most brilliant economic journalist who ever lived'. In The Law, written in 1850, the year of his death, Bastiat recognises the central importance of the law and morality in a free society. He was concerned that government was using the 'law' to become too active a participant in the economy whilst devoting too little attention to protecting life and liberty. This Occasional Paper, which reprints an English translation of The Law, includes a new introduction by Professor Norman Barry of the University of Buckingham which places Bastiat's views in their historical context and explains their continuing relevance today.

Bastiat's "The Law" (Occasional Paper, 123)

Business & Money

Frederic, Bastiat

Economics

Institute Of Economic Affairs

The Law

Politics & Social Sciences

Politics & Government

Blackstone Audio,Inc.

The Economics of Freedom: What Your Professors Won't Tell You

Students for Liberty

Reference

Foundation for Economic Educat

He was the most uncompromisingly consistent advocate of laissez-faire in the 19th Century -- and the most quotable!  Here, in a single volume, are this great political economist's most brilliant writings. They include his immortal classic, 'The Law,' as well as such unforgettable essays as 'The State,' 'What Is Seen and What Is Not Seen,' 'Property and Plunder,' 'Declaration of War Against the Professors of Political Economy' and many others.  An intellectual feast! With an Introduction by Nobel Laureate Friedrich Hayek.

Selected Essay on Political Economy

Foundation for Economic Education

Here, in this 1850 classic, a powerful refutation of Karl Marx's Communist Manifesto, published two years earlier, Bastiat discusses: what is law?, why socialism constitutes legal plunder, the proper function of the law, the law and morality, "the vicious circle of socialism", and the basis for stable government. French political libertarian and economist CLAUDE FRÉDÉRIC BASTIAT (1801-1850) was one of the most eloquent champions of the concept that property rights and individual freedoms flowed from natural law.

Legal Theory & Systems

The Foundation for Economic Education

Product Details Paperback: 62 pages Publisher: Laissez Faire Books (2012) ISBN-10: 0983541485 ISBN-13: 978-0983541486 Product Dimensions: 6.9 x 4.4 x 0.3 inches Shipping Weight: 0.8 ounces

Laissez Faire Books

Creative Commons

Written two years after the third French Revolution, The Law is Bastiat's treatise on how those in power can use the law to their advantage to control and even enslave the population. Bastiat argues that all individuals have natural rights (i.e., life, liberty, and private property), which emanate from Natural Law, and the government's primary, if not sole, purpose is to protect these individual rights. This humble work is nothing short of a ringing exhortation of mankind's equal and absolute liberty under Natural Law, the law that springs from our inalienable state of self-possession. Prepare to go on a journey to discover the sanctity of being human and dealing with governments that immorally violate an individual's rights through the prosecution of unjust laws.

Masonic Publishing Company

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Books by Frederic, Bastiat