The Online Books Page

Natural law

Here are entered works on the legal system derived from the concept that some laws are fundamental to human nature and are discoverable by human reason without reference to specific legislative enactments or judicial decisions. Works on scientific statements that constitute generalized descriptions of natural phenomena, are entered under Physical laws.

See also what's at Wikipedia, your library, or elsewhere.

• Law

• Natural law -- Congresses
• Natural law -- Early works to 1800
• Natural law -- History
• Natural law -- Periodicals
• Natural law -- Religious aspects
• Liberty

• Law of nature (Law)
• Natural rights
• Nature, Law of (Law)
• Rights, Natural

• The Elements of Law, Natural and Politic, by Thomas Hobbes (text at McMaster)
• De Cive, by Thomas Hobbes (text files at McMaster)
• A Discourse on the Origin of Inequality Among Men, by Jean-Jacques Rousseau, trans. by G. D. H. Cole (HTML at Wikisource)
• A Discourse Upon the Origin and Foundation of the Inequality Among Mankind (John Adams's copy, with his handwritten annotations; London: R. and J. Dodsley, 1761), by Jean-Jacques Rousseau, contrib. by John Adams (multiple formats at archive.org)
• The Ethics of Liberty (1998 edition), by Murray N. Rothbard, contrib. by Hans-Hermann Hoppe (PDF and partial HTML at mises.org)
• The Evolution of Modern Liberty (New York et al.: Longmans, Green and Co., 1904), by George L. Scherger (multiple formats at Indiana)
• The Philosophy of Law: An Exposition of the Fundamental Principles of Jurisprudence as the Science of Right (Edinburgh: T. and T. Clark, 1887), by Immanuel Kant, trans. by W. Hastie (HTML and PDF files at libertyfund.org)
• Philosophy of Right, by Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel, trans. by S. W. Dyde (PDF at McMaster)
• Lectures on the Principles of Political Obligation, by Thomas Hill Green (PDF at McMaster)

• The Principles of Natural and Politic Law (fifth edition corrected, 2 volumes; Cambridge, MA: At the University Press, 1807), by J. J. Burlamaqui, trans. by Thomas Nugent
  • Volume I: multiple formats at archive.org
  • Volume II: multiple formats at archive.org

• Natural Law Forum (full serial archives)

• Cost of Freedom: A Collective Inquiry (2015) (PDF with commentary at costoffreedom.cc)
• Empire of Liberty: Power, Desire, and Freedom (Hanover, NH: Dartmouth College Press, 2010), by Anthony Bogues (multiple formats at Dartmouth Digital Publishing)
• Self-Liberation: A Guide to Strategic Planning for Action to End a Dictatorship or Other Oppression (East Boston, MA: Albert Einstein Institution, c2009), by Gene Sharp, contrib. by Jamila Raqib (PDF via aeinstein.org)
• Against Freedom: The War on Terrorism in Everyday New Zealand Life (2007), by Valerie Morse (PDF with commentary at Rebel Press)
• Freedom, Law and Justice (Hamlyn Lectures, #50; London: Sweet and Maxwell, 1999), by Stephen Sedley (PDF in the UK)
• Pattern for Revolt (originally published 1948; this edition Irvington-on-Hudson, NY: Foundation for Economic Education, 1995), by Leonard E. Read (PDF with commentary at fee.org)
• Liberty: A Path to Its Recovery (second edition; Irvington-on-Hudson, NY: Foundation for Economic Education, c1993), by F. A. Harper (multiple formats with commentary at fee.org)
• Freedom and the Law (third edition, 1991), by Bruno Leoni (HTML and PDF at libertyfund.org)
• The Freedom Philosophy (Irvington-on-Hudson, NY: Foundation for Economic Education, 1990), ed. by Paul L. Poirot (PDF at fee.org)
• For a New Liberty: The Libertarian Manifesto (1978), by Murray N. Rothbard (HTML and PDF at mises.org)
• The Anxiety of Freedom: Imagination and Individuality in Locke's Political Thought (Ithaca, NY and London: Cornell University Press, c1992), by Uday Singh Mehta (PDF and Epub with commentary at Cornell University Press)
• Mill on Liberty (1980), by Chin Liew Ten (HTML at Victorian Web)
• Our Heritage of Liberty, Its Origin, Its Achievement, Its Crisis: A Book for War Time (c1942), by Stephen Leacock (HTML in Canada; NO US ACCESS)
• Social Choice and Individual Values (Cowles Foundation monograph #12, second edition; New York: J. Wiley and Sons; London: Chapman and Hall, 1963), by Kenneth J. Arrow (PDF at Yale)
• Protection from Power Under English Law (Hamlyn Lectures, #9; London: Stevens and Sons, 1957), by John Clarke MacDermott (PDF in the UK)
• Civil Liberty: A Sermon (1856), by Noah Porter, ed. by Joe Lockard (multiple formats with commentary at Wayback Machine)
• The Decline of Liberty in England, by E. S. P. Haynes (DjVu at archive.org)
• The Ethics of Liberty (1998 edition), by Murray N. Rothbard, contrib. by Hans-Hermann Hoppe (PDF and partial HTML at mises.org)
• The Evolution of Modern Liberty (New York et al.: Longmans, Green and Co., 1904), by George L. Scherger (multiple formats at Indiana)
• The Fetishism of Liberty (New York: Marxian Philosophical Society, 1917), by Harry Waton (page images at HathiTrust)
• Liberty: A Speech Delivered at Battery D, Chicago, on Release from Woodstock Jail, November 22, 1895 (1895 speech made on author's release from jail; Chicago: C.H. Kerr and Co, ca. 1911), by Eugene V. Debs (multiple formats at Indiana)
• Liberty, Equality, Fraternity (New York: Holt and Williams, 1873), by James Fitzjames Stephen (page images at HathiTrust)
• Liberty, Equality, Fraternity (London: Smith, Elder and Co., 1873), by James Fitzjames Stephen (HTML at terrenceberres.com)
• The Mainspring of Human Progress (1953 edition), by Henry Grady Weaver (PDF and Epub with commentary at mises.org)
• Never Again: Ending War, Democide, and Famine Through Democratic Freedom, by R. J. Rummel (PDF at Hawaii)
• On Liberty (4th edition, 1869), by John Stuart Mill (HTML at Bartleby)
• On Liberty, by John Stuart Mill (HTML at Bartleby)
• On Liberty (with an added introduction; London et al.: Walter Scott Pub. Co., ca. 1901), by John Stuart Mill, contrib. by W. L. Courtney (Gutenberg text)
• Vices Are Not Crimes: A Vindication of Moral Liberty, by Lysander Spooner (HTML with commentary at mind-trek.com)
• Social Choice and Individual Values (Cowles Foundation monograph #12, first edition; New York: J. Wiley and Sons; London: Chapman and Hall, 1951), by Kenneth J. Arrow (PDF at Yale)
• Freedom Under the Law (Hamlyn Lectures, #1; London: Stevens and Sons, 1949), by Sir Alfred Denning (PDF in the UK)
• Critics and Crusaders (New York: H. Holt and Co. c1948), by Charles Allan Madison (page images at HathiTrust)
• Critics and Crusaders: A Century of American Protest (New York: H. Holt and Co. c1947), by Charles Allan Madison (page images at HathiTrust)
• The Price of Free World Victory: An Address Before the Free World Association, New York City, May 8, 1942 (Washington: GPO, 1942), by Henry A. Wallace
  • page images at HathiTrust; bottom of some pages cut off
  • speech as originally delivered: HTML and audio with commentary at americanrhetoric.com and YouTube
• The Wave of the Past (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1941), by R. H. Markham (page images at HathiTrust)
• Law and Order (Hamlyn Lectures, #37; London: Stevens and Sons, 1985), by Ralf Dahrendorf (PDF in the UK)
• Die Freiheitskriege Kleiner Völker Gegen Grosse Heere (in German; Bern : Haller'sche verlagsbuchhandlung, 1867), by Franz von Erlach
  • page images at HathiTrust
  • page images and PDF in Germany
• Lectures on the Principles of Political Obligation, by Thomas Hill Green (PDF at McMaster)
• The Limits of Liberty: Between Anarchy and Leviathan, by James M. Buchanan (frame-dependent HTML at econlib.org)
• The Reconciliation of Government with Liberty (New York: C. Scribner's Sons, 1915), by John William Burgess
  • multiple formats at archive.org
  • page images at HathiTrust
• Topics of Jurisprudence Connected with Conditions of Freedom and Bondage, by John C. Hurd (page images at MOA)
• Lucius B. Swift: A Biography (Indiana Historical Society Publications, v9; Indianapolis: Pub. for the Society by the Bobbs-Merrill Co., 1930), by William Dudley Foulke (multiple formats at archive.org)
• Freedom, Cultural Traditions, and Progress: Philosophy in Civil Society and Nation Building, by George F. McLean (PDF at crvp.org)
• La Philosophie Bergsonienne (in French; Paris: M. Rivière et cie, 1914), by Jacques Maritain (page images at HathiTrust; US access only)
• A Plea for Liberty: An Argument Against Socialism and Socialistic Legislation (New York: D. Appleton, 1891), ed. by Thomas Mackay (HTML at econlib.org)

More items available under narrower terms.