Customer Reviews

The Law

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While I agree with Bastiat entirely, the way that he has presented "the classic blueprint for a just society," is exactly why people who lean more towards socialist ideas scoff at those who are for capitalism, economic stability, and most importantly honoring the fundamentals of the need for law: to protect life, liberty, and property.

The first chapter started out wonderfully, articulately and simple. It was accessible and easy to understand and apply. I was excited as I hoped to share this with my husband to allow him to open up to my ideas on politics which are different from his (he's a democrat/socialist).

However, the rest of the book just seemed to be a rant that got more and more impassioned as it went along, which to me seemed to take away from the reader's ability to take what he was saying seriously. I was disappointed because even though I agreed with everything he said and thought his applications of his ideas were great, I felt sort of embarrassed about his inability to keep calm in expressing his ideas.

The book is sound, based on sound ideas and should appeal to any libertarian. I nodded a lot as I was reading it. "Yes!" I kept telling myself, "this is definitely true." Unfortunately the truth was told, in this case, in a way that I don't think would be very accessible to the people that Bastiat was intent on reaching. I think a democrat/socialist might mislabel it "too radical" when they really mean, "too impassioned."

It is for that reason, I'm sorry to say, I was unable to rate this any higher.

Bastiat's Law is one of the most important documents you could ever read. It is the basis for the philosophy of liberty, and without adherence to these ideals liberty cannot last. This should be required reading in school, but once you read what this french philosopher had to say you may start to understand why those who tax us cannot afford to have too many people read this book.

The author is able to eloquently define Law as well as the role of law and law-makers in any society. Although written for another country and another time, the content is just as applicable to this country today. This is a testiment to the fundamental truths expoused.

In 1850 a French guy wrote this little essay on the Law. It could have been written today in the US, in Europe, because we are certainly not progressing in terms of common-sense, politically. Here are some ideas:

-Justice is the absence of injustice. Nothing more than that.

-What God does is well done. Do not claim to know more than Him. The fact that this rule is almost universally broken says much about our level of hubris.

For Bastiat Law is a minus, it takes away. His subject is so relevant today that we can see the results of the States' false philanthropy, just as Orwell warned us in his Animal Farm. Western governments certainly know how to belittle us... we couldn't do without them. In Spain we have this government commercial encouraging drivers to drive well: "We can't drive for you!" They wished. The only idea that they think about it tells how far they've got under our skin.

This book is dynamite. Makes one see the world today in a clear and detached way. Who are the philanthropists that we "owe so much devotion to"? Take Gore's greedy schemes with his mineral mines behind his climactic facade. Take another homeless, Soros, the preacher of the Left, whose God is money.

To be a Pharisee is indeed to love the Law while hating man, to use the Law to make Injustice legal, to pervert Justice, to become a new god to modern State worshippers, wellfare addicts. Yes, Bastiat would sure be ashamed to see what the West has become: the legalized plunder by the State.

"The Law" could be printed in today's editorial page, and most would believe that Frederick Bastiat was speaking to today's events. But this little classic shows that the plagues of statism, class interest, and majority tyranny were just as timeless in 1850 as they are today.

Mr. Bastiat establishes that all rights are individual rights. A group, consisting only of individuals, has none inherently. Proper law, derived from individual rights and made effective by force, steps in for the individual when others overwhelm him and attack his rights. Had society simply stuck with this, its issues would be empty.

"But the law is made, generally, by one man, or by one class of men. And as law cannot exist without the sanction and the support of a preponderating force, it must finally place this force in the hands of those who legislate.

"This inevitable phenomenon, combined with the fatal tendency which, we have said, exists in the heart of man, explains the almost universal perversion of the law. It is easy to conceive that, instead of being a check upon injustice, it becomes its most invincible instrument."

And in come the activists, the planners, the egotistical, the greedy, and the law is turned on the individual and perverted into a tool for group power; division, group conflict, abuse, resentment, and law-worship result. Society's issues are legitimized only when the law is treated like this. And so Mr. Bastiat challenges the planners' blueprints for law as organized charity, organized welfare, organized commerce, etc., with his own definition: LAW IS ORGANIZED JUSTICE (capital letters are his).

Mr. Bastiat follows with his theory that statism is ubiquitous in Western history, even among the influences of the founding fathers. He offers many historic examples of ideas that man is passive, or must be made to be so. Robespierre was the worst: "The principle of Republican Government is virtue, and the means to be adopted during its establishment, is terror." You'll be surprised by the totalitarian talk of many figures we celebrate: we'd find it revolting if it were about foreign invaders. Yet it's about their own people.

Mr. Bastiat presents a solid challenge to democratists, universal suffrage, republicanism, any tentacle attached to state government. Socialism is merely the overt version of this problem.

Proper law is only about the individual. It isn't about creating anything. It isn't activist. It is reactive. Justice steps in for one's protection, not for one's profit.

Read this classic and be a little more free.

This is a formative, classic work. If you are into politics, do yourself a favor and read it ASAP. This is really a light-weight primer to libertarianism, and yet it is very powerful and heavy-duty at the same time. If more people would read (and adopt) these ideas, I think our political environment would slowly move in the right direction!

This is an excellent book which I read years ago. "The Law" by Frederic Bastiat, in which he discusses legalized plunder, is a highly recommended work which should be read by all Americans, especially before they vote. Should also be required reading by anyone running for public office, serving on a jury, or attending law school. In fact, why not make it required reading in all public schools? That would really change the political, social, and economic landscape! Let's all buy several copies and send one each to our Representatives and Senators, state and federal. We the People can make a difference, if we try!

This timely piece on libertarianism by Fredrick Bastiat is yet further evidence that the ideas of liberty do not have an expiration date. The copyright states that this essay was originally published in 1850, yet over 150 years later its message still resonates. Bastiat experienced the socialistic approach in the French government during the early 1800s and knew well of its perversion of law.

Every man, woman, and child has the right to their life and property. The government was created to bring justice and defense to her people and their property, as it should retain. But when laws are put in place to legalize theft, whether it comes from man's personal greed or compassion, then the law ends up directly contradicting herself.

This essay describes two ways the government legalizes theft (or plunder). One way is when a few people plunder many and the other is when everybody plunders everybody. The third option is when nobody plunders anybody, the third option is the option of freedom.

Yet laws are often put into place for humanitarian reasons, whether it be to protect the markets, economy, or people. Though such laws directly contradict the main purpose of the law, to give justice and defense to the people. The government has nothing to give, it can only take from one man and give to another. She cannot better a marketplace or economy by placing tariffs or tweaking interest rates, as it is only the free market that can create the best economy.

Yet the law, as the essay describes, is perverted. By whom? Its legislator. The legislator tends to think that they know better how to run the lives of individuals than the individuals themselves. So they put into place laws to steal from one group to supposedly help another. But what happens when the dissatisfied class gets into power of the legislator? They put laws into place to spite the other! As Bastiate describes it, "...legislation will be a battlefield for everybody's dreams and everybody's covetousness."

This essay is a must read for everyone capable of understanding its message and a must have for every libertarian's library.

All you need to know is that Ron Paul recommends it! Ron Paul has the most experience with Constitutional law, and he recommends this book.

The author of this book was clearly blessed with a stellar mind capable of powerful reasoning and the most cogent elucidation of his mental products. His presentation in this book of the right use of law versus the manipulation of law is virtually inarguable. The logic is glaringly clear and unavoidable. Every, and I mean every U.S citizen, should read this book. In fact, had this book been required reading in public schools from 1850 (its origination) our nation would not presently be on the precipitous decline that it is. Any person with the main of his mental faculties in proper working order will inevitably be convinced by Bastiat's case that the definition of Law is the organizing of force for the maintenance of justice, and therefore, its application should be strictly limited to protecting individual liberty. It requires only that the reader accept that justice be understood as the unhindered presence and practice of liberty- which ensures that each individual is free to exercise his God given faculties (his humanity) according to his own conscience (or the direction of God if he is wise) rather than according to the coercion of other men. Can there be a better definition or objective for the law than this? Bastiat argues forcefully that this situation of liberty will naturally be the most peaceful and prosperous for any society. This book will change your mind or greatly enhance your thinking regarding the matter of the right use of the law.