A Brief Overview of Just Law

It never fails that whenever a liberty activists asks the question, "Why should I have to listen to [insert unjust policy here]?" a statist will quickly respond, "Because it's the law!"

We obviously can see that they're missing the point -- simply because something is law does not at all prove that it is right. Unlike social contract theorists who claim that the law is whatever the majority makes of it, all just laws are actually based upon man's rights.

Though merely a summary, this article outlines that which determines the correctness or incorrectness of all laws:

These objective codes of law exist only to prevent unethical actions between men, meaning the employment initiated force from one man or group of men to another. The reason for this is that at any point one man must subject himself to the will or another, his life and all other values which maintain and improve his life (physically and psychologically) are jeopardized. Man’s life is wholly and unequivocally his own to do with as he pleases within the context of respecting others’ ownership of their lives. Claiming otherwise would suggest that, somehow, the correctness of man’s values can be determined by using another man’s life as an ultimate value, allowing his own life to become of secondary importance. This is the philosophy of altruism, of death as an ultimate value, which disregards all real values of man’s own life. (This is not to say that the life of another can possess no real rational value – it may even be of such great value that it is necessary to keep one’s own life worth living – but it cannot, if men are to act morally, be the ultimate value.) All limitations of initiated force as determined by man’s life are known as “rights,” incontrovertible moral absolutes which at no time can be violated. In fact, the phrase “natural rights” is a very appropriate way to describe these absolutes – not because they exist in some sort of mystic, spiritual sense, but because they themselves are based upon the natural laws that govern the whole of reality. Laws may justly only protect these rights, not infringe upon them.

Click here for the full article.

YAL @ NU Gets Chapter T-Shirts

Our chapter at Northeastern University got chapter t shirts to help increase our name recognition and presence on campus. The logo is our school mascot (a husky) riding an eagle. Check 'em out!

10 Questions with Don Watkins

As liberty activists, we draw from a great number of pro-liberty sources to create our own individualist philosophies. This exposure to different perspectives strengthens us intellectually and helps shape who we are.

In this interview, Slade Mendenhall questions Don Watkins, an analyst for the Ayn Rand Center for Individual Rights, about several issues, including the Fed, the financial collapse, entitlement programs and much more.

The Federal Reserve, remember, is in charge of the entire banking and monetary system, which was nationalized a century ago. That’s the lifeblood of the economy. Money is the thread that connects the entire economy, and when you mess with it, you can do incredible damage. In my judgment, that’s exactly what happened last decade to cause the financial crisis. The financial crisis is a complex subject, but as I and many others have argued, the first cause was then-Fed chairman Alan Greenspan’s decision in the early 2000s to drive interest rates extremely low–lower than even the rate of inflation. It was those low interest rates that enticed and enabled people to take on huge amounts of debt to buy and invest in homes. You could not have had a housing bubble without the Fed.

Click here for the full interview.

Rock Concert on Campus

If you're looking for a social event to host on campus, consider a concert with Jordan Page:

If you're interested please email him here.