Adam Smith’s Lectures on Jurisprudence – Justice, Law, and the Moral Economy
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Walter J Kendall
Professor of Law at The John Marshall Law School, Chicago, Illinois, USA.
Abstract
Adam Smith, a leading thinker of the British Enlightenment, is universally known as the author of the ‘Wealth of Nations’ and an economic theorist. He is less well known as the author of ‘The Theory of Moral Sentiments’ and an ethicist. And known almost not at all for his ‘Lectures on Jurisprudence’ or as a legal theorist.
This essay looks at Smith’s thought through the lens of his Lectures on Jurisprudence. It highlights the almost paradoxical positions Smith had on self-interest, markets, government, and economic expansion. Obscured by his reputation and these paradoxes are his views on justice, equality, and power. This essay concludes that Smith’s ‘justice’ is deficient and no substitute for the ‘bread nexus’ of the moral economy.
About the author
Professor of Law at The John Marshall Law School, Chicago, Illinois, USA.
© 2017 by Walter de Gruyter Berlin/Boston
Articles in the same Issue
- Inhalt
- Table of Contents
- Articles
- Adam Smith’s Lectures on Jurisprudence – Justice, Law, and the Moral Economy
- Undermining Trial by Jury in Russia in Counterterrorism and the Wider Criminal Law
- Notes
- Contemporary United States Law Regarding Online Social Media Libel Standards on the 50th Year Anniversary of Times v Sullivan and 40th Year Anniversary of Gertz v Welch
- Comparing Constitutional Adjudication
- Developments Austria
- Strengthening the Judicial Review System in Austria
- Data Retention: A Violation of the Right to Data Protection
- Data Retention: Directive invalid – Limits imposed by the Principle of Proportionality exceeded
- Data Retention: As to the Admissibility of the Applications − A Reversal of Trend in the Jurisdiction?
- Developments CEE
- Slovak Constitutional Court: Tax and Delegated Legislation from a Constitutional Perspective
- Book Reviews
- Armin von Bogdandy and Ingo Venzke, In wessen Namen? Internationale Gerichte in Zeiten globalen Regierens (In Whose Name? A Public Law Theory of International Adjudication), Suhrkamp, 2014, ISBN 9783518296882 (paperback), 383 pp
Articles in the same Issue
- Inhalt
- Table of Contents
- Articles
- Adam Smith’s Lectures on Jurisprudence – Justice, Law, and the Moral Economy
- Undermining Trial by Jury in Russia in Counterterrorism and the Wider Criminal Law
- Notes
- Contemporary United States Law Regarding Online Social Media Libel Standards on the 50th Year Anniversary of Times v Sullivan and 40th Year Anniversary of Gertz v Welch
- Comparing Constitutional Adjudication
- Developments Austria
- Strengthening the Judicial Review System in Austria
- Data Retention: A Violation of the Right to Data Protection
- Data Retention: Directive invalid – Limits imposed by the Principle of Proportionality exceeded
- Data Retention: As to the Admissibility of the Applications − A Reversal of Trend in the Jurisdiction?
- Developments CEE
- Slovak Constitutional Court: Tax and Delegated Legislation from a Constitutional Perspective
- Book Reviews
- Armin von Bogdandy and Ingo Venzke, In wessen Namen? Internationale Gerichte in Zeiten globalen Regierens (In Whose Name? A Public Law Theory of International Adjudication), Suhrkamp, 2014, ISBN 9783518296882 (paperback), 383 pp
