Bruce L. Benson

Articles

Restitution-Based Criminal Justice in Japan

09/20/2019 Mises Wire Bruce L. Benson

[ A selection from “ Restitution in Theory and Practice” in Volume 12, Number 1 (1996) of the Journal of Libertarian Studies.] Japan takes restitution very seriously, and it appears to work. A key...

The Impetus for Recognizing Private Property and Adopting Ethical Behavior in a Market Economy: Natural Law, Government Law, or Evolving Self-Interest

07/20/2005 Review of Austrian Economics Bruce L. Benson

This paper was prepared for consideration for a Ludwig von Mises prize to be awarded at the Mises Institute’s 10th anniversary conference, October 9-11,1992. The paper draws from and expands upon a...

Enforcement of Private Property Rights in Primitive Societies: Law without Government

07/30/2014 Journal of Libertarian Studies Bruce L. Benson

If law exists only where there are state-backed courts and codes, then every primitive society was lawless. Indeed, one widely held definition or “theory” of law is that “the rule of law simply means...

Publications

The Enterprise of Law: Justice without the State

06/01/1990 Bruce L. Benson

Benson argues that public dissatisfaction with legal institutions is as prevalent as public disgust with many public institutions. That’s hardly surprising. They are funded through taxes, run by bureaucracies, are famously inefficient, lack the

Media

The Mises Institute is a non-profit organization that exists to promote teaching and research in the Austrian School of economics, individual freedom, honest history, and international peace, in the tradition of Ludwig von Mises and Murray N. Rothbard.

Non-political, non-partisan, and non-PC, we advocate a radical shift in the intellectual climate, away from statism and toward a private property order. We believe that our foundational ideas are of permanent value, and oppose all efforts at compromise, sellout, and amalgamation of these ideas with fashionable political, cultural, and social doctrines inimical to their spirit.