Law Commons^™

The Architecture of Law explores the metaphor of law as an architectural building project, with eternal law as the foundation, natural law as the frame, divine law as the guidance provided by the architect, and human law as the provider of the defining details and ornamentation. Classical jurisprudence is presented as a synthesis of the work of the greatest minds of antiquity and the medieval period, including Cicero, Artistotle, Gratian, Augustine, and Aquinas; the significant texts of each receive detailed exposition in these pages.

Along with McCall’s development of the architectural image, he raises a question that becomes a running …

The “property question” is the constitutional question whether a society’s basic resources are to be publicly or privately owned; that is, whether these basic resources are to be available to private owners, perhaps subject to tax and regulation, or whether instead they are to be retained in joint public ownership, and managed by democratic processes.  James Madison’s approach represents a case in which prior holdings are taken for granted, and the property question itself is kept off of the political agenda.  By contrast, John Rawls approach abstracts from any actual pattern of holdings, while putting the property question on the …

for presentation at the Property and Political Economy Conference at the Smith Institute,

Chapman University, April 20-21, 2018

The “property question” is the constitutional question whether a society’s basic resources are

to be publicly or privately owned; that is, whether these basic resources are to be available to

private owners, perhaps subject to tax and regulation, or whether instead they are to be

retained in joint public ownership, and managed by democratic processes. James Madison’s

approach represents a case in which prior holdings are taken for granted, and the property

question itself is kept off of the political agenda. By …