The Law — Outline

Thesis

Development

1. 1.

   Introductory: the perversion of law stated

   “The law perverted! The law--and, in its wake, all the collective forces of the nation--the law, I say, not only diverted from its proper direction, but made to pursue one entirely contrary!”

   The Law.
2. 2.

   Foundation: definition of law from natural right

   “the collective organization of the individual right to lawful defence.”

   The Law.
3. 3.

   Diagnosis: two causes of perversion

   “The law has been perverted through the influence of two very different causes--bare egotism and false philanthropy.”

   The Law.
4. 4.

   Consequence: legal plunder defined and distinguished

   “See whether the law takes from some persons that which belongs to them, to give to others what does not belong to them.”

   The Law.
5. 5.

   Critique: the classical-legislator tradition surveyed

   “these extracts, which I might multiply, show that, according to Montesquieu, the persons, the liberties, the property, mankind itself, are nothing but materials to exercise the sagacity of lawgivers.”

   The Law.
6. 6.

   Application: socialist and revolutionary legislators as heirs of the tradition

   “One of the strangest phenomena of our time, and one which will probably be a matter of astonishment to our descendants, is the doctrine which is founded upon this triple hypothesis: the radical passiveness of mankind,--the omnipotence of the law,--the infallibility of the legislator”

   The Law.
7. 7.

   Resolution: law as justice only

   “law is justice. Nothing can be more clear and simple, more perfectly defined and bounded, or more visible to every eye; for justice is a given quantity, immutable and unchangeable, and which admits of neither increase or diminution.”

   The Law.

Conclusion