The Classical Liberal Constitution: An Originalist Assement
It is my great pleasure to talk about Richard Epstein’s new book. Back when I was in law school at Yale, the faculty didn’t include any classical liberals. But happily the Federalist Society would, once a semester, have Richard out to give a talk. I felt that I learned more from that single talk than from anything else I was being taught during the semester. Gary Lawson, who was there, can vouch for this. And to this day, when it comes to policy issues, I agree with Richard over 90 percent of the time.
The Classical Liberal Constitution is an impressive book. It covers a great deal of ground, integrating classical liberal theory with both the original Constitution and the Constitution’s development over time. It exhibits a significant degree of learning with highly original and persuasive arguments.
