“A milestone in political and moral philosophy, as groundbreaking as the theories of Bentham and Kant and arguably the most important and influential piece of contemporary philosophy of the last century.” ―The Guardian The principles of justice that Rawls set forth in this book are those that free and rational people would accept in an “original position” of equality. In this hypothetical situation, which corresponds to the state of nature in social contract theory, no one knows their place in society; their class or social status; their fortune in the distribution of natural assets and abilities―their intelligence, strength, and the like―or even their conception of the good. Deliberating behind this “veil of ignorance,” people naturally determine their proper rights and duties. Thus, as Rawls writes, “each person possesses an inviolability founded on justice that even the welfare of society as a whole cannot override.” Incorporating the ideas of Rousseau, Kant, Emerson, and Lincoln, Rawls’s theory is as powerful today as it was when first published in 1971. For more than half a century, A Theory of Justice has been taught and debated, celebrated and translated into more than thirty languages. This revised edition includes changes, discussed in the preface, that Rawls considered to be significant, especially to the discussions of liberty and primary social goods.

Law and economics is the leading intellectual movement in law today. This book examines the first great law and economics movement in the early part of the twentieth century through the work of one of its most original thinkers, Robert Hale. Beginning in the 1890s and continuing through the 1930s, progressive academics in law and economics mounted parallel assaults on free-market economic principles. They showed first that "private," unregulated economic relations were in fact determined by a state-imposed regime of property and contract rights. Second, they showed that the particular regime of rights that existed at that time was hard to square with any common-sense notions of social justice. Today, Hale is best known among contemporary legal academics and philosophers for his groundbreaking writings on coercion and consent in market relations. The bulk of his writing, however, consisted of a critique of natural property rights. Taken together, these writings on coercion and property rights offer one of the most profound and elaborated critiques of libertarianism, far outshining the better-known efforts of Richard Ely and John R. Commons. In his writings on public utility regulation, Hale also made important contributions to a theory of just, market-based distribution. This first, full-length study of Hale's work should be of interest to legal, economic, and intellectual historians.

"What is Property?" is a book by French philosopher and economist Pierre-Joseph Proudhon, first published in 1840. In this work, Proudhon examines the concept of property and its implications for society. He argues that property is theft and that it is the source of all social ills. He also proposes a new form of social organization based on mutualism and voluntary cooperation. This book is an important work in the history of anarchism and has been influential in the development of modern economic thought. Pierre-Joseph Proudhon (1809 - 1865) was a French politician, philosopher, and economist. He is best known for his theories of mutualism and anarchism, which he developed in his works such as "System of Economic Contradictions" (1846) and "The General Idea of the Revolution in the 19th Century" (1851).