An Anarcho-Individualistic Remark on Natural Law: Lysander Spooner and His Theory of Law

Abstract

Lysander Spooner (1808-1887) is an important but oft-neglected figure of 19th-century American political philosophy. He was a lawyer, entrepreneur, and political essayist. Ideologically, he was an individualist anarchist, abolitionist, and an exponent of the labor movement and free market. He was also a natural law theorist who developed forceful arguments on behalf of an individualistic conception of natural law philosophy and private property rights in opposition to authoritarian governments, state-interventionism, legislative and taxative activities, and all forms of paternalism, whether moral, legal, or political. Thus, he stood generally between the two main philosophical positions of natural law philosophy and of a radically individualistic type of anarchism. As a result of his unique philosophical character, he became a highly influential figure among contemporary libertarians and anarcho-capitalists, and his books and pamphlets have also served as rather convenient sources for understanding and analyzing the libertarian legal theory, as well as its outcomes and claims regarding contemporary legal matters. However, he neither wrote any systematic treatise nor try to develop any systematic philosophy. Although he did write various works on law, he was unable to gather his views within a systematic work. This study's purpose is to generally disclose Spooner's conception of law through some of his legal views dispersed among his various book chapters and pamphlets and to reveal this conceptualization's connection to natural law philosophy by concentrating on his thoughts regarding certain fundamental legal concepts such as justice, constitution, right, property, and crime. Specifically, this work will concentrate on discussing Spooner's naturalistic answer to the question of what is law and will address in connection with this answer the true meanings of crime and property he held in his mind.