'The rule of law' is at once one of the most persistent and mysterious phrases in jurisprudence. I am not aware of anyone who is opposed to the rule of law. Read more

I have been assigned a fiendishly large topic. How do you deal with so vast a subject? Read more

The concept of fairness is both elusive on the one hand and well-nigh indispensable on the other. On particular occasions, I devoutly wish that the word would be eliminated from the English lexicon, which is a bit like hoping to hold back the tides with a wave of the hand. Read more

The question I have been asked to address is ‘How big should government be?’. My temptation is to start with the position that they who govern best govern least. Read more

There is a natural cycle in intellectual development. New ideas begin as isolated and idiosyncratic attacks from without. Read more

The study of constitutional law often begins with a dispute between two different versions of the relationship of the individual to the state. There are those who think that atomistic individuals come together by a set of voluntary contracts, and those who think that societies should be treated as though they are complex organisms that cannot be understood simply as the sum of their parts. Read more

One of the most famous statements about the relationship between a company and a state is contained in a remark by Charles E Wilson ('Engine Charlie' of General Motors) when he was being questioned for his appointment as Secretary of Defence in 1953, the early days of the Eisenhower administration. He said that, "for years I thought what was good for our country was good for General Motors and vice versa". Read more

This lecture, Affirmative Action: The US Experience and Implications for New Zealand, was delivered on 3 August 2004 at the offices of Russell McVeagh, Wellington. Read more

On my last visit to New Zealand in 1999 I spoke as an outsider to a sceptical audience on how best to interpret the Treaty of Waitangi.1 I said that one of the great challenges facing a country formed by successive waves of immigrants is to put together disparate norms from rival cultures, each of which has its own distinctive legal understandings as to how the world does or should work. On that occasion I said that I would like to start from a neutral corner, and then proceeded to address several Roman law analogues to the question of prescriptive rights, largely on the basis that the great Roman authors were not influenced by the future events that unfolded in New Zealand. Read more

This lecture, Is There Unequal Bargaining Power in the Labour Market?, was delivered in Wellington on 2 August 2004 at the offices of Chapman Tripp Sheffield Young, Wellington. Read more

In this modern age of global commerce, it seems odd that I have been asked to address the topic 'In defence of the corporation'. Even the most ardent critic of the corporation would not take the position that the corporate form should be dismissed as an ill-conceived venture of modernity so that it would be for the better to be rid of it and return to being a nation of artisans. Read more

It is my pleasure to welcome you to what I am certain will be a stimulating address by Richard Epstein, professor of law at the University of Chicago and a senior fellow at the Hoover Institution. This is professor Epstein’s fourth visit to New Zealand. Read more

Professor Epstein is on his fourth visit to New Zealand. He has been enormously generous in helping people in this country with the many topics he has worked on. Read more

The NZBR, in its research, is attempting to take the broadest possible view of the concept of a regulatory constitution. We have analysed many attempts at regulatory reform within countries belonging to the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), starting with the initiatives of various US presidents in the early 1970s. Read more

The general question that I have been asked to address is this: how to think about telecommunications regulation. My comparative advantage is not in particular knowledge of the ongoing New Zealand dispute on how heavy- or light-handed telecommunications regulation ought to be, although I have some weak instincts on that subject that I will share with you in due course. Read more