Search results for ""Author Richard A. Epstein""

This important volume gives a comprehensive overview of the economic foundations of private property law. Beginning with economic and philosophical accounts of the origins of property, the authoritative selection of articles traces the evolution of both private and common property, establishing how they coexist within a mature property rights system. Particular attention is directed towards the regulation of specific types of commons such as pastures, streets and fisheries. The study also examines the rules that govern the acquisition, protection and transfer of private property as part of a coherent system of property rights.

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With this book, Richard A. Epstein provides a spirited and systematic defense of classical liberalism against the critiques mounted against it over the past thirty years. One of the most distinguished and provocative legal scholars writing today, Epstein here explains his controversial ideas in what will quickly come to be considered one of his cornerstone works.He begins by laying out his own vision of the key principles of classical liberalism: respect for the autonomy of the individual, a strong system of private property rights, the voluntary exchange of labor and possessions, and prohibitions against force or fraud. Nonetheless, he not only recognizes but insists that state coercion is crucial to safeguarding these principles of private ordering and supplying the social infrastructure on which they depend. Within this framework, Epstein then shows why limited government is much to be preferred over the modern interventionist welfare state.Many of the modern attacks on the classical liberal system seek to undermine the moral, conceptual, cognitive, and psychological foundations on which it rests. Epstein rises to this challenge by carefully rebutting each of these objections in turn. For instance, Epstein demonstrates how our inability to judge the preferences of others means we should respect their liberty of choice regarding their own lives. And he points out the flaws in behavioral economic arguments which, overlooking strong evolutionary pressures, claim that individual preferences are unstable and that people are unable to adopt rational means to achieve their own ends. Freedom, Epstein ultimately shows, depends upon a skepticism that rightly shuns making judgments about what is best for individuals, but that also avoids the relativistic trap that all judgments about our political institutions have equal worth.A brilliant defense of classical liberalism, Skepticism and Freedom will rightly be seen as an intellectual landmark.

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If legal scholar Richard Epstein is right, then the New Deal is wrong, if not unconstitutional. Epstein reaches this sweeping conclusion after making a detailed analysis of the eminent domain, or takings, clause of the Constitution, which states that private property shall not be taken for public use without just compensation. In contrast to the other guarantees in the Bill of Rights, the eminent domain clause has been interpreted narrowly. It has been invoked to force the government to compensate a citizen when his land is taken to build a post office, but not when its value is diminished by a comprehensive zoning ordinance.Epstein argues that this narrow interpretation is inconsistent with the language of the takings clause and the political theory that animates it. He develops a coherent normative theory that permits us to distinguish between permissible takings for public use and impermissible ones. He then examines a wide range of government regulations and taxes under a single comprehensive theory. He asks four questions: What constitutes a taking of private property? When is that taking justified without compensation under the police power? When is a taking for public use? And when is a taking compensated, in cash or in kind?Zoning, rent control, progressive and special taxes, workers’ compensation, and bankruptcy are only a few of the programs analyzed within this framework. Epstein’s theory casts doubt upon the established view today that the redistribution of wealth is a proper function of government. Throughout the book he uses recent developments in law and economics and the theory of collective choice to find in the eminent domain clause a theory of political obligation that he claims is superior to any of its modern rivals.

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In this thought-provoking collection, Professor Epstein brings together the leading articles which explore the economic approach to the two major issues of constitutionalism. The first volume deals with structural protections that are afforded by the separation of powers, the use of checks and balances, and the institutions of federalism. The second volume deals with the protection of individual rights in connection with property, speech, religion, due process and equality. Both volumes focus on the extent to which assumptions about self-interest and human nature influence the choice of social institutions. They offer extensive comparisons between the classical liberal and social democratic views of constitutional law. Professor Epstein's lengthy and careful introduction seeks to weave together the diverse approaches to constitutional law exhibited in these volumes.

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In this paper, Richard A Epstein, Professor of Law at the University of Chicago, explains how there are substantial gains to be made from countries getting 'easy' policy decisions correct. Societies collapse and become impoverished when they do not accept the basic principles of freedom to contract and competition. Even in the developed world these principles have not been accepted in key areas such as agricultural and labour markets. Significant welfare gains could be achieved from liberalisation in both areas. Epstein explains how liberal economists, politicians and civil servants often spend much time discussing 'difficult' cases. While these issues may be important to particular groups in society, the implications of getting 'difficult' cases wrong is not serious. Thus policy-makers and their advisers, Epstein says, would do well to concentrate on the 'easy' cases. In his study, Professor Epstein uses evidence and analysis derived from the disciplines of both law and economics. Professor Geoffrey E Wood provides a commentary that elucidates Epstein's argument and shows how it can be further applied to policy issues relevant to the UK.

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American liberals and conservatives alike take for granted a progressive view of the Constitution that took root in the early twentieth century. Richard Epstein laments this complacency which, he believes, explains America’s current economic malaise and political gridlock. Steering clear of well-worn debates between defenders of originalism and proponents of a living Constitution, Epstein employs close textual reading, historical analysis, and political and economic theory to urge a return to the classical liberal theory of governance that animated the framers’ original text, and to the limited government this theory supports.“[An] important and learned book.”—Gary L. McDowell, Times Literary Supplement“Epstein has now produced a full-scale and full-throated defense of his unusual vision of the Constitution. This book is his magnum opus…Much of his book consists of comprehensive and exceptionally detailed accounts of how constitutional provisions ought to be understood…All of Epstein’s particular discussions are instructive, and most of them are provocative…Epstein has written a passionate, learned, and committed book.”—Cass R. Sunstein, New Republic

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Though George W. Bush took office in January, the nation is still recovering from the prolonged and complex process by which he was elected. The Florida electoral controversy and the subsequent decisions by both the Florida courts and the US Supreme Court left citizens and scholars alike divided over the role of the judiciary in the electoral arena. Now, after several months of reflection, leading constitutional scholars - Cass R. Sunstein, Richard A. Epstein, Pamela S. Karlan, Richard A. Posner and John Yoo, among others - weigh in on the Supreme Court's actions, which still seem sensible, legally legitimate and pragmatically defensible to some and an egregious abuse of power to others. Representing the full spectrum of views and arguments, "The Vote" offers the most timely and considered guide to the ultimate consequences and significance of the Supreme Court's decision. The contributors to this volume were highly visible in the national media while the controversy raged, and here they present fully fleshed-out arguments for the positions they promoted on the airwaves. Readers should find in "The Vote" equally impassioned defences for and indictments of the Court's actions, and they should come to understand the practical and theoretical implications of the Court's ruling in the realms of both law and politics. No doubt a spate of books will appear on the 2000 presidential election, but none will claim as distinguished a roster of contributors better qualified to place these recent events in their appropriate historical, legal and political contexts.

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Integrate psychotherapy with residential treatment to achieve positive results for patients in group care! This book addresses the complex issues that arise in the effort to provide individual therapy in group care settings. It reviews classical case material, presents contemporary case studies, and examines practical and theoretical issues important to the effective delivery of treatment to individuals living in residential care. Noted experts who have been associated with The Sonia Shankman Orthogenic School at the University of Chicago and the Menninger Clinic in Topeka, Kansas, share knowledge garnered from years of real-world experience to help you stay at the leading edge of the field and provide effective individual treatment to your clients in long- and short-term residential care. Psychotherapy in Group Care: Making Life Good Enough includes practical and theoretical chapters exploring important aspects of the group care paradigm. The book: presents a case study that describes vital aspects of the analytic process that emerged in work with an adolescent boy in a group home who felt as though he was a psychological orphan illustrates the role of play as a continuous and basic function in therapy and presents play-themed vignettes from analytic work with two young people in residential care revisits Joey: A Mechanical Boy and Tommy the Space Childclassic case studies from Bruno Bettelheim and Rudolph Ekstienand explores the implications of contemporary relational theory for using the meaning and metaphor of behaviors and communications addresses issues of transference and counter-transference in the psychodynamic psychotherapy of a young girl in residential carewith a discussion of unrecognized rescue fantasies and projective identification, and of the need for residential childcare workers to recognize and work through the difficult feelings evoked in the process of working with seriously disturbed young people examines the structural basis for the integration of psychotherapy and residential treatment, considering the meaning of integration, variables that affect the manner and degree to which integration can be accomplished, and changes in the psychotherapists' roles that can maximize the potential of each variable explores three sets of theoretical issues facing clinicians as they play multiple roles in short-term residential treatment, discussing how conflicts in the roles of therapists and team leaders can be resolved, the implications of such a resolution in terms of confidentiality, and ways in which major approaches to psychotherapy can be adapted to new conditions considers the role of the primary clinician in relation to the residential team and explores the ways in which integration of psychotherapy and residential treatment can be implemented in the early phase of the treatment process

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