natural law

Beyond Brennan’s Blooper

Brennan Hart Bentham and Jefferson

Editor’s Note: This piece was originally published at Steve Hayward’s Substack here. Anchoring Truths has been given permission by Steve Hayward to reprint his article. The embarrassment of CBS News’s Margaret Brennan thinking that “weaponized” free speech was the road to Nazism tells us that the problem with the media today is not just that

Contra Koppelman: What Mere Natural Law Was About

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Editors Note: This piece originally appeared in the Per Curiam section of the Harvard Journal of Law & Public Policy as a response to a review by Prof. Andrew Koppelman of Hadley Arkes’s Mere Natural Law. It is reproduced here with permission from the Harvard Journal of Law & Public Policy.

Natural Law and Labor Law with Alex MacDonald

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Alex MacDonald⁠, a DC-based labor lawyer, touches on the historical roots of the right to work, the right’s connection with natural-law principles, and its return to modern jurisprudence. Informed by JWI Co-Director Hadley Arkes’s Mere Natural Law, Alex examines how that return could transform modern labor law, especially the concept of exclusive representation. This episode,

Fabricated Identity and the Dilemma of Moral Authority – Part 2

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“Modern history is the dialogue between two people: one who believes in God, another who believes he is a god” (Nicolás Gómez Dávila, 1913) Editor’s Note: In Part 1, Dr. Haug examined the current secular attempt to construct personal identity beyond the bounds of the creation order. Here, in Part 2, he explores the humanist

Natural Law and Government by Consent with Paul DeHart

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For the latest Anchoring Truths Podcast, JWI Affiliated Scholar Paul DeHart joins for a fascinating in-depth discussion on themes from his latest book, The Social Contract in the Ruins: Natural Law and Government by Consent. DeHart is a distinguished professor of political science at Texas State University. Topics include the limits of the consent of

Securitization: A Solution to the Migration Crisis in the United States

1024px Peter Paul Rubens The Fall of Phaeton National Gallery of Art

Editor’s Note: This piece was originally published in late November 2024 at The New Digest. It is reproduced at Anchoring Truths with permission. We reproduce it here for timeliness in the current debates over immigration and the broader American constitutional order. The Trump administration’s declaration of a national emergency at the southern border has echoes

The Rights of Women: A Natural Law Approach with Erika Bachiochi

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This episode features a webinar discussion on Natural Law and Women’s Rights with Erika Bachiochi, a legal scholar and current fellow with the Ethics and Public Policy Center. This webinar was part of our ongoing series of legal education webinars with the Center for Religion, Culture, and Democracy. Erika Bachiochi examines, both philosophically and historically,

Fabricated Identity and the Dilemma of Moral Authority – Part 1

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“We must recognize that we face a great contest. At stake is the understanding of personal identity that supplies moorings for the conservative virtues, and lies at the root of any distinctively Western tradition” (Abraham Joshua Heschel, 1907–1972) Cultural Marxism is the foundational paradigm for individuals endeavouring to center their identities on a humanist refabrication

Originalism and Ancient Rabbinic Exegesis

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“Tradition is not the worship of ashes, but the transmission of fire.” (Gustav Mahler, 1860 – 1911) The first official prayer in America’s newly-constituted Continental Congress took place in September 1774. Through this event, Congress firmly emphasized the religious ethos of America’s founding. In particular, primacy and honour was accorded to the 3,000 year-old Hebrew scriptures

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The James Wilson Institute’s Mission is to restore to a new generation of lawyers, judges, and citizens the understanding of the American Founders about the first principles of our law and the moral grounds of their own rights.
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