Courts, Rights, and New Technology: Judging in an Ever-Changing World
Friedrich A. von Hayek was primarily an economist and political philosopher, but I plan to discuss another side of him: Hayek the constitutional theorist. Hayek had a lot to say about constitutions in general, and the American Constitution in particular. For example, he did not much care for the American system of separation of powers, which often produces presidents and Congresses of opposite parties. “It is difficult to see the expediency of erecting this particular obstacle,” he wrote.
But on the whole Hayek admired the American Constitution, and others of its features were more to his liking. He was for example a fan of federalism. He agreed with Lord Acton that “[o]f all checks on democracy, federalism has been the most efficacious and the most congenial.”
