The Law was originally published in French in 1850 by Frederic Bastiat. It was written two years after the third French Revolution of 1848 and a few months before his death of tuberculosis at age 49. It is the work for which Bastiat is most famous. This translation to American English is from 1874.
“LAW IS ORGANIZED JUSTICE” The Law is concentrated and opinionated. I throughly enjoyed reading it, even if I disagreed with some of his points (see below). The concepts are simple and elegant, making this an immortal book. However, the values are strongly one-sided, and lacking concrete examples. Read on for my book review. The Law, published in 1850 France, declares the purpose of the law is to protect life, liberty and property. Thus, when the law is used otherwise, it is misused. Frédéric Bastiat…
True wisdom This work gives a wonderful insight into the differences between negative (natural) rights, which are to be protected by governments, and positive (economic) rights which are supposedly to be provided by governments. It is in the latter category, in the effort to “provide justice,” that the law is easily corrupted and perverted by violating the negative rights of some to arbitrarily supply positive rights to others.Some of my favorite passages:”…the statement, ‘The…
What a simple and poignant essay on governments and politicians. This is an absolute must-read primer on government bodies and politicos constantly overstepping their bounds. In a world chock full of superficial and vapid political arguments spewed by mainstream media and propagated by indolent social media shares owing to human’s natural predilection for inflammatory headlines and negativity in general, this book offers deep and simply stated insight into a theoretical manifesto of what a fair…