The Structure of Liberty: Justice and the Rule of Law pdf

Randy E. Barnett is the Carmack Waterhouse Professor of Legal Theory at the Georgetown University Law Center, where he teaches constitutional law and contracts. After graduating from Northwestern University and Harvard Law School, he tried many felony cases as a prosecutor in the Cook County State’s Attorney’s Office in Chicago. He has been a visiting professor at Northwestern and Harvard Law School. In 2008, he was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship in Constitutional Studies. In 2004, Barnett appeared before the U.S. Supreme Court to argue the medical cannabis case of Gonzalez v. Raich. He lectures internationally and has appeared on radio and television programs such as the CBS Evening News, PBS NewsHour, Talk of the Nation (NPR), Hannity & Colmes (FOX), and the Ricki Lake Show. He delivered the Kobe 2000 lectures in jurisprudence at the University of Tokyo and Doshisha University in Kyoto. Barnett’s scholarship includes more than 80 articles and reviews as well as 8 books, including Restoring the Lost Constitution: The Presumption of Liberty (Princeton, 2004), Constitutional Law: Cases in Context (Aspen 2008), Contracts Cases and Doctrine (Aspen, 4th ed. 2008), and Our Republican Constitution: Securing the Liberty and Sovereignty of We the People (Broadside Books, 2016).

The Structure of Liberty: Justice and the Rule of Law pdf by Randy Barnett

What is liberty, as opposed to license, and why is it so important? When people pursue happiness, peace and prosperity whilst living in society, they confront pervasive problems of knowledge, interest, and power. These problems are dealt with by ensuring the liberty of the people to pursue their own ends, but addressing these problems also requires that liberty be structured by certain rights and procedures associated with the classical liberal conception of justice and the rule of law. Drawing upon insights from philosophy, economics, political theory, and law, Randy Barnett examines the serious social problems that are addressed by liberty--and the background or "natural" rights and "rule of law" procedures that distinguish liberty from license. He then outlines the constitutional framework that is needed to protect this structure of liberty. Athough this controversial new work is intended to challenge specialists, its clear and accessible prose ensure that it will be of immense value to both scholars and students working in a range of academic disciplines.