February 19, 2015
Parental Rights and the Obligation to Care
Murray Rothbard famously argued that parents have the right to neglect or abandon their children because they have acquired no obligation to care for them. In my forthcoming book, I…
All posts in: Rights Theory
January 04, 2015
The Uneasy Marriage of Liberty and Democracy
Michael Huemer writes that if seven friends at the bar decide by a vote of 6 to 1 that you should pay for everyone’s drinks, you are not obligated to…
September 19, 2014
Self-Determination: Follow-up to Jason Brennan
The right of self-determination, despite the stirring rhetoric of its advocates, is profoundly illiberal. It is not a right against a state but a right to a state. It is…
September 15, 2014
The Limits of Secession
Outside libertarian circles, many believe that communities may democratically choose virtually any political and economic system they wish. The imminent Scotland vote (see James Taylor’s recent post) suggests some general…
September 04, 2014
“Don’t Lean on Me!” The Ethics of the Knee Defender
The “Knee Defender” is a small device that airline passengers attach to the seat of front of them to prevent it from reclining. Recently, one passenger used the device on…
July 15, 2014
The Prospects for a Pro-Life Libertarianism
Imagine for the purposes of this post that personhood begins at conception, as many pro-lifers believe. Imagine further that you’re a standard self-ownership libertarian, who believes that all people, fetuses…