Intuition, Custom, and Protocol: How to Make Sound Decisions with Limited Knowledge
It is my very great pleasure to be asked on this occasion to deliver the first Friedrich von Hayek lecture at the New York University School of Law. One need look no further than NYU’s new Journal of Law & Liberty to have some sense of the enduring influence that Hayek has had on the intellectual temper of modern times. It is no mean feat for a native Austrian to migrate to England and then to the United States, while composing along the way some of the most influential works of the twentieth century. Like so many individuals of enduring greatness, Hayek defied the usual conventions that separate one academic discipline from another. Trained as an economist, he gravitated away from technical subjects to the more ethereal realm of political theory. Moreover, his work in this area was tempered by a real appreciation for the power of legal institutions to shape human behavior. A cross between the economist, the philosopher, and the lawyer, he addressed a wide range of issues that escaped writers who were tightly bound to a single discipline. He is generally regarded as the single most important figure in the revival of classical liberalism in the twentieth century.
