Freedom's Anchor

An Introduction to Natural Law Jurisprudence in American Constitutional History

Andrew P. Napolitano

• Publisher: Academica Press
• Year: 2023
• Print ISBN: 9781680537079
• eBook ISBN: 9781680537093
• Topic: Law
• Subtopic: Law Theory & Practice
• Index: Law

In Freedom's Anchor, famed legal commentator Judge Andrew P.Napolitanomakes the case for using natural law principles to restrain government. Going back to Aristotle, Augustine, and Aquinas, JudgeNapolitanoidentifies the origins of Natural Law Theory and explains its growth and development in English and American law. He argues compellingly that the idea that our rights come from our humanity – and not from social consensus or government – is enshrined in the Ninth Amendment, authored by none other than James Madison himself, the scrivener of the Constitution, and is binding on the courts today.

Freedom's Anchor is essentially a history of law and power in the United States as seen through the lens of Natural Law Theory. This work traces the Supreme Court's explicit acceptance and explicit rejection of these principles. For the first time in one volume, JudgeNapolitanogives us the universe of all published works in English (and some in Latin and in Spanish) on Natural Law Theory. He has scoured the Supreme Court's writings and examined all that reflect favorably or unfavorably upon the principles of innate human freedom.

After having published nine previous books on the U.S. constitutional history, this is JudgeNapolitano's magnum opus. It reflects a lifetime of thinking and understanding by one of America's preeminent legal thinkers. Scholars, judges, and law students will love this book. And non-lawyers who read this book – interested in the courts' historical treatment of fundamental human freedoms and how we lost them – will say to each other: "Wow. I didn't know that! There is still hope."

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Copyright
• Dedication
• Contents
• Acknowledgements
• Introduction
• Chapter 1: History of the Natural Law: Philosophical Origins and Underpinnings
• Chapter 2: The Natural Law: From the Desk to the Bench
• Chapter 3: The Natural Law Emigrates to the New World
• Chapter 4: Natural Law Arguments in Colonial Caselaw
• Chapter 5: The Founders, Naturally and Conventionally
• Chapter 6: Ratification: It Plays in Philadelphia, But Will it Play in Providence?
• Chapter 7: The Bill Comes Due
• Chapter 8: Expansion and Contraction: Potencia Abhorret Vacuum1
• Chapter 9: Threats Foreign and Domestic, and the Emergence of the Democraticrepublicans
• Chapter 10: The Early Supreme Court and the Natural Law Tradition
• Chapter 11: Legal Positivism Begins to Take Hold
• Chapter 12: Interest Returns After a Century of Legal Positivism
• Chapter 13: Early Modern Natural Law Theory and New Positivism
• Chapter 14: Natural Law and Civil Rights
• Chapter 15: The Treatment of the Institution of Slavery Under Natural Law
• Chapter 16: Contemporary Natural Law Theorists
• Chapter 17: A Tale of Two Originalists
• Chapter 18: The Sisyphean Journey of Natural Law in American Courts in the Nineteenth Century
• Chapter 19: The Natural Reasoning Behind Due Process
• Chapter 20: Judicial Confrontations of Natural Law Theory
• Chapter 21: Limiting the Role of Positive Law: Criminalizing Only Acts Which Produce Palpable Harm
• Chapter 22: Conclusion
• Abbreviations
• Notes
• Bibliography
• Index