The Law

Here, in this 1850 classic, a powerful refutation of Karl Marx's Communist Manifesto, published two years earlier, Bastiat discusses: • what is law? • why socialism constitutes legal plunder • the proper function of the law • the law and morality • "the vicious circle of socialism" • the basis for stable government • and more. French political libertarian and economist CLAUDE FRÉDÉRIC BASTIAT (1801-1850) was one of the most eloquent champions of the concept that property rights and individual freedoms flowed from natural law.