(Praxeology) - '..the basic individualism inherited by us from Erasmus and Montaigne, from Cicero to Tacitus, Pericles and Thucydides..'

'..F.A. Hayek lamented that society was “abandoning … the basic individualism inherited by us from Erasmus and Montaigne, from Cicero to Tacitus, Pericles and Thucydides..” '

'There is a good reason why Jim Powell’s The Triumph of Liberty begins with Cicero’s story, and why F.A. Hayek lamented that society was “abandoning … the basic individualism inherited by us from Erasmus and Montaigne, from Cicero to Tacitus, Pericles and Thucydides… .”

Not only was Cicero an important influence on our founders’ attempt to defend our liberty by tightly constraining government, his understanding of why such constraints were necessary was thoroughly modern: “Never was a government that was not composed of liars, malefactors and thieves.” '

- Cicero on Justice, Law and Liberty



'..any price set by free and voluntary bargaining is just and legitimate, the only exception being a contract made by children..'

'..the Theodosian Code was crystal clear: any price set by free and voluntary bargaining is just and legitimate, the only exception being a contract made by children. Force or fraud, as infringements on property rights, were of course considered illegal. The code held explicitly that ignorance of the value of a good by either buyer or seller was insufficient ground for authorities to step in and rescind the voluntarily agreed contract.

The Theodosian Code was carried forward in western Europe, e.g., the Visigothic law set forth in the 6th and 7th centuries, and the Bavarian law of the early 8th century. Bavarian law added the explicit provision that a buyer may not rescind a sale because he later decides that the agreed price was too high. This laissez-faire aspect of the Theodosian Code later became incorporated into Christian canon law by being included in the collection of "capitularies" (decrees) by St. Benedictus Diaconus in the 9th century AD.'

- Murray N. Rothbard, Roman Law: From Laissez-Faire to Statism



'..the original Roman law and English common law, both decentralized systems, are vastly superior to today’s legislation based, positivistic, codified legal systems–and that as between Roman and common law, the Roman law is more fascinating to me and seems superior in many respects..'

It was not until later, after I had more distance from Rand and more exposure to libertarian theory, Austrian economics, and other writings such as Bruno Leoni’s Freedom and the Law and Giovanni Sartori’s Liberty and Law, that I developed my current view–as expressed in my 1995 JLS article noted above. Which is that the original Roman law and English common law, both decentralized systems, are vastly superior to today’s legislation based, positivistic, codified legal systems–and that as between Roman and common law, the Roman law is more fascinating to me and seems superior in many respects.

And over the years I keep noticing cases of this. To which I now turn. The first example is Jesu?s Huerta de Soto’s fantastic book Money, Bank Credit, and Economic Cycles, which draws on Roman legal concepts (such as irregular deposit) to explain and clarify the issues surrounding fractional-reserve banking–narrowing the wiggle room of ambiguity that FRB proponents operate within.

And I am starting to think the Roman law had not only a more elegant and conceptually coherent and streamlined legal framework, but a better view of property rights and even some economic fundamentals than the common law. My entire view of property rights is heavily influenced by the idea that property simply means ownership, and this means the legal right to control a scarce resource..

..

This way of looking at property rights is of course how Austro-libertarians such as Rothbard and Hoppe view it, but it is also natural to the Roman law tradition .. Roman law is superior conceptually and substantively, and more compatible with libertarianism and Austrianism..'

- Stephan Kinsella, The Superiority of the Roman Law: Scarcity, Property, Locke and Libertarianism, August 17, 2010



Context (Banking Reform - English/Dutch) '..a truly stable financial and monetary system for the twenty-first century..'

Logic - 'Advance .. by building on the foundations laid by our predecessors...'

Christianity, Islam – 'The Principles of the Laws Protection of..' '..Discovery of the Self'

Past & Present - '...The right to own property - freedom of thought and to human dignity'


(Liberty) - 'A market .. a discovery process which continuously gathers knowledge..'

Economics - '...the mind's interaction with the physical world...' ('..acts of choice.')

(Praxeology) - '..the behaviorist and the experimentalists versus the praxeologists and the philosophers..'


Legislation and Law in a Free Society

Introduction to Libertarian Legal Theory

Money and banking in Ancient Rome


'...the principle of self-ownership: each person rightfully owns his or her own body.'