My Methodological Flip-Flop on Individual Liberty

Richard A. Epstein

Econ Journal Watch, 2017, vol. 14, issue 2, 288–293

Abstract: I trace my conversion over forty plus years from a traditional libertarian who tends to ignore the consequences of individual actions to a utilitarian who regularly invokes the standard of Pareto improvements to evaluate the choice of legal rules and institutions. That difference is most apparent in connection with the common-law position on refusal to rescue, which I once defended on grounds of individual liberty, regardless of consequences, but later came to defend it by a more consequentialist account. Going beyond individual liberty also heavily influences public law, where topics such as taxation and eminent domain require a framework that looks at the reasons for the exceptions to claims of individual liberty.

Keywords: Regret; error; discourse (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: A11 A13 A14 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2017
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:ejw:journl:v:14:y:2017:i:2:p:288-293

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