Introduction to Libertarian Legal Theory

by Stephan Kinsella

Mises Daily
January 3, 2011

Libertarianism is both old and new. It is rooted in ancient ideas of natural justice, fairness, peace, and cooperation. You could even say that any civilized society is already somewhat libertarian. After all, civilization requires peace and cooperation, which imply respect for others' rights. This is what the libertarian seeks.

To be sure, there are deviations from ideal libertarianism, in the form of both private crime and public crime — that is, state regulations and laws that derogate from private-property rights. But the prosperity of the modern age is the result of human cooperation and free markets, and it exists despite deviations from libertarian principles. Most people would not steal their neighbor's property even if they could get away with it. They respect their neighbors' libertarian rights already — to a certain degree.

But libertarianism is new, too. It is fresh and radical. Depending on when you peg its origins, it is at most only a couple hundred years old. Arguably, modern, full-fledged, sophisticated, radical libertarianism begins with Rothbard, so it is really only 50 or 60 years old — For A New Liberty was published in 1973.

Libertarian thought obviously requires a sound understanding of property rights and economics. And because Austrian economics is sound economics, sophisticated libertarian theorizing must be informed by a grasp of Austrian economics.

But libertarianism is primarily concerned with individual rights, and thus with aggression — crime — as the fundamental enemy of rights. There is private crime, yes. But the state is an agency of institutionalized aggression and is the primary threat to civilization and rights. Thus, libertarianism has to be informed by Austrian economics, and it has to be radically antistate. As the greatest student of Ludwig von Mises, Rothbard was ideally suited to systematize and radicalize individualist libertarian thought and integrate it, as it had to be, with Austrian economics.

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