Roberta Bayer Subscribe

Roberta Bayer is Associate Professor of Political Philosophy at Patrick Henry College and Garwood Visiting Fellow in the James Madison Program at Princeton University.

November 20, 2018|David Hume, despotism, James Wilson, John Locke, Natural Law, Republicanism, Thomas Hobbes

Natural Law and Democracy: The Philosophy of James Wilson

by Roberta Bayer|13 Comments

Engraving by J.B. Longacre after "miniature in possession of Mrs. Hollingsworth." Published in John Sanderson, Biog. of the Signers to the Declaration of Independence, Philadelphia, 1823. (Everett Historical/Shutterstock.com)

Thoroughgoing philosophical skepticism undermines liberty by denying that law can be reasonable, and that justice can be known.

Reconsidering the Sources of American Liberty

by Tony Williams

Wormersley's volume addresses the sources of American Revolution and how those ideas fashioned American understandings of liberty.

Just Before the Return of the Strong Gods: On Charles Péguy’s Temporal and Eternal

by James Matthew Wilson

Nature hates a vacuum, and if modern civic life does not fill itself with a range of sound mystiques, others, more dark, will make an entrance.

The Populist Presidency vs. The Founders' Presidency

A discussion with Stephen F. Knott

Stephen Knott discusses the immense revolution in power that has remade the American presidency over the past century.

Judicial Supremacy and the Constitution

A discussion with Greg Weiner

Greg Weiner discusses the difference between the political constitution and the judicial constitution.

Managing Whiteshift

A discussion with Eric Kaufmann

A discussion with Eric Kaufmann about white majorities and the future of politics in western democracies.

Brexit Shenanigans and the Old English Constitution

A discussion with Helen Dale

Helen Dale discusses Brexit, the English Constitution, and the future of British politics.

Constitutional Change Made Easy, UK Edition

Did the flexibility of the UK's unwritten constitution facilitate changes that have made governing almost impossible?
by Abram N. Shulsky
Why Economic Nationalism Fails

If the principle of national sovereignty is incompatible with the policies of economic nationalism, national conservatives have a problem.
by Dylan Pahman
Brexit Panto

Billed as the most significant election since Clement Attlee’s 1945 Labour landslide, the outcome will determine whether Brexit happens at all.
by Helen Dale
Luther and Liberalism

The roots of Western liberalism both precede, and go far deeper, than Martin Luther and his influence.
by James R. Rogers
De Gaulle’s Alternative for Europe

Attempts to distance peoples completely from their national cultures were bound to produce unpredictable consequences.
by Samuel Gregg

Law & Liberty’s focus is on the classical liberal tradition of law and political thought and how it shapes a society of free and responsible persons. This site brings together serious debate, commentary, essays, book reviews, interviews, and educational material in a commitment to the first principles of law in a free society. Law & Liberty considers a range of foundational and contemporary legal issues, legal philosophy, and pedagogy.

The opinions expressed on Law & Liberty are solely those of the contributors to the site and do not reflect the opinions of Liberty Fund.

Roberta Bayer Subscribe

About