An Interview With The American Postliberal
Yesterday, The American Postliberal, a platform for non-liberal perspectives on politics and law — edited entirely by students and young professionals — published an interview with yours truly, available in audio or in transcript. The subject was classical law and legal theory, and the questions from the interviewers, Messrs. Owen Lee and Joseph Shagoury, were substantive, relevant, and intelligent, for which I thank them. Don’t miss a bit of talk about Montesquieu, my current obsession, at the end.1
Enjoy!
Mis-speaking off the cuff, I slightly garbled a quote from De L’Esprit des Lois XI.3, the correct quote being “liberty can only consist in being able to do what one ought to want” (la liberté ne peut consister qu’à pouvoir faire ce que l’on doit vouloir). The substantive point I was trying to make, that that conception of liberty is entirely classical, is unaffected.
Really refreshing to see classical legal theory getting proper attention. The Montesquieu discussion on liberty sounds particualrly relevant since most legal debates today seem to skip past foundational questions like that. I worked with a prof in grad school who insisted we read De L'Esprit des Lois alongside modern theory, and it totally shifted how I think about legal frameworks. The interview format seems like a great way to unpack these ideas without getting to academic.