The concept of self-ownership was first articulated in anglophone political thought in the decades between the outbreak of the English Civil War and the Glorious Revolution. This book traces the emergence and evolution of self-ownership over the course of this period, culminating in a reinterpretation of John Locke's celebrated but widely misunderstood idea that "every Man has a Property in his own Person." Often viewed through the prism of libertarian political thought, self-ownership has its roots in the neo-Roman or republican concept of liberty as freedom from dependence on the will of another. As Lorenzo Sabbadini reveals, seventeenth-century writers believed that the attainment of this status required not only a specific kind of constitution but a particular distribution of property as well. Many regarded the protection of private property as constitutive of liberty, and it is in this context that the vocabulary of self-ownership emerged. Others expressed anxieties about the corrupting effects of excessive concentrations of wealth or even the institution of private property itself. Bringing together canonical republican writers such as John Milton and James Harrington, lesser-known pamphleteers, and Locke, a theorist generally regarded as being at odds with neo-Roman thought, Property, Liberty, and Self-Ownership in Seventeenth-Century England is a bold, innovative study of some of the most influential concepts to emerge from this groundbreaking period of British history.

On July 4, 1653, the Nominate or Barebones Parliament convened with a minority of committed radicals (Levellers and religious extremists) and a conservative majority of Cromwell’s allies. During acrimonious debates on law reform, the radicals demanded a condensed law book similar to the one adopted in Colonial Massachusetts. These mostly overlooked events reveal a radical wing of Puritanism determined to found a self-governing state, fully cognizant of the real possibility that England would interdict such attempts by force of arms. This work investigates the motives for such a hazardous undertaking, and the possible influences these events had on the colony’s posterity.

Regarded by contemporaries as the chief dispute of our times, tithes were the subject of intense controversy in the 1650s. Ministers, reformers, radicals and sectarians all went into print to defend or destroy the clergy's right to a tenth of the produce of the land. Tithes pushed the limits of private property, and both their opponents and their defenders recognized their significance for ownership, the law, liberty and individuality.

This book discusses whether democracy and republicanism are identical, complementary, or contradicting ideas. The rediscovery of classic republicanism a few decades ago made it clear how profoundly modern notions of democracy had been shaped by the republican tradition. But defining these two concepts remains difficult, and the views diverge widely. The overarching aim of this book is to discuss the extent to which democracy and republicanism are identical, complementary or mutually contradicting ideals / ideas. Pursuing this open approach to the subject means calling into question a widely used formula according to which modern democracy is composed of liberal principles such as individualism, the rule of law and human rights, on the one hand, and of republican principles such as focusing on the common good and popular sovereignty, on the other. This book will appeal to students, researches, and scholars of political science interested in a better understanding of political theory and political history.

Seventeenth-century England was a country obsessed with property rights. For only those who owned property were considered to have a vested interest in the maintenance of law, order and social harmony. As such, establishing the ownership of 'things' was a constant concern for all people, and nowhere is this more evident than in the cases of disputed wills. Based on a wealth of surviving evidence from the Prerogative Court of Canterbury, the probate jurisdiction which probated wills of the more wealthy English property owners as well as some of those with a more modest quantity of property, this book investigates what litigation over the validity of wills reveals about the interplay between society and law. The volume investigates, catalogs, and systematizes the legal issues that were raised in will disputes in the Canterbury Court in the last half of the seventeenth century. However, this is not just a book about law and legal practice. The records from which it draws plunge us into deeply personal and often tragic situations, revealing how the last requests of the dead and dying were often ignored or misinterpreted by family, friends and creditors for their own benefit. By focusing on property law as reflected in cases of disputed wills, the book provides a glimpse at a much fuller spectrum of society than is often the case. Even people of relatively modest means were concerned to pass on their possessions, and their cases provide a snapshot of the type of objects owned and social relationships revealed by patterns of bequests. This too is true for women, who despite being denied full participation in many areas of civic life, are frequently encountered as key players in court cases over disputed wills. What emerges from this study is a picture of a society for which notions of law and private property were increasingly intertwined, yet in which courts were less concerned with formality than with ensuring that the intentions of will-makers were properly carried out.

Intellectual Property Rights (IPRs)—the idea of knowledge as property—and its role in human society is being increasingly discussed across nations and borders. Involving legal, political, cultural, and ethical issues, debates on IPRs continue to be complex and wide-ranging. This book analyses the basic assumptions and premises of the notion of intellectual property as a right. It goes on to show how IPRs prevent those who do not own it from accessing and exercising their own diverse rights. Thus, in a way, IPRs violate the very idea of individual autonomy on which it bases its claims. Highlighting the inherent propensity of IPRs to conflict with'other rights of other peoples' this volume examines three important rights: health rights, indigenous peoples' knowledge rights, and farmers' rights. Do IPRs derive any legitimacy from its ability to support or conjoin with these rights? Do IPRs fit within a framework of rights, which unites welfare, well being, and equal access to advantage and autonomy? These are questions which arise out of the varied contestations that have emerged in the face of IPRs and which have been probed in this book. The analyses also moves beyond to explore some of the broader challenges that liberal theory of rights faces from collective claims to knowledge rights and practices.

"The essays in this volume confront the inroads that economics has made into the legal academy.... Law and Economics uses principles of neoclassical economics to develop laws and social policies that maintain if not bolster current allocations of power."—from the Introduction The Law and Economics school has had a significant impact on the legal and governmental landscape in the United States. It posits a perfectly rational "economic man"—homo economicus—who is unconstrained by familial and communal ties and who can and should make decisions solely in light of considerations of economic value. Feminism Confronts Homo Economicus offers a major intervention in debates about how law has come under the influence of economic principles. Drawing on the latest thinking in the fields of feminist legal theory, critical legal studies, and feminist economics, the essays critique the notion that legal and policy decisions should be made solely through the lens of economics. While the contributors question the wholesale incorporation of the neoclassical economic model into legal analysis, they do not all discard economic analysis and theory. Situated at the intersection of feminism, law, and economics, Feminism Confronts Homo Economicus will appeal to scholars and students of these disciplines as well as policy analysts and social theorists interested in family, education, labor, and welfare.

Naomi Zack begins this extraordinary book with the premise that if one is to understand Western conceptions of racialized and gendered identity, one needs to go back to a period when such categories were not salient and examine how notions of identity in the seventeenth century were fundamentally different from subsequent constructions. The seventeenth century is the last time, for example, that Europeans had any contact with non-Europeans without racializing them. From the eighteenth century onward, race becomes a central category for Europeans in their transactions with a different world, and gender undergoes radical transformation.Zack takes the reader through a lucid tour of the lives, times, and writings of such key "bachelors of Science" as Bacon, Descartes, Newton, and Gassendi. The book situates these empiricist philosophers and their canonical reputations within the larger framework of the de facto "masculinization of science" and "scientizing of masculinity" in the seventeenth century, arguing for a more nuanced understanding of these key thinkers of the period.Other fascinating issues examined in this book include pre-racial conceptions of slavery, witchcraft trials and their connection to homosociality, and the highly sexualized nature of women's identity in the seventeenth century. Zack points out the link between elite bachelorhood, the profession of philosophy, and scientific pursuit as recreational activity. This book is a must for understanding the historical and philosophical precedents of modern scientific identity, race, and gender. Author note: Naomi Zack is Assistant Professor of Philosophy at State University New York at Albany and the author of Race and Mixed Race (Temple).

A collection of essays exploring John Milton's rise to popularity and his status as a canonical author. The volume considers Milton's 'authorial persona' in the context of his relationships with his contemporary writers, stationers, and readers.

Nancy Love’s concise yet complete volume aims to inform students of their choices among political values. By exploring the assumptions of various ideologies and comparing their positions, students begin to understand political alternatives to be able to choose among them—in essence, they learn to think democratically. Offering historical and analytic context for the selections in her companion reader, Dogmas and Dreams, Love challenges students to consider the various ways ideological frameworks shape political actions. Reframing her approach in this second edition, Love examines how traditional left/right ideologies—liberalism and conservatism, socialism and fascism—are shifting to adapt to new political realities in an ever turbulent, post-9/11 world. She also discusses why alternative ideologies—feminism, environmentalism, fundamentalism, and globalization—may better convey our global political future. While pushing the boundaries of the left/right political spectrum, she looks at how grassroots social movements offer alternative ways to view ideological differences, from cluster-concepts to micro-discourses, and even a planetary galaxy. Expanded coverage includes: a new chapter on nationalism and globalization, which examines the work of Samuel Huntington, Kenichi Ohmae, Benjamin Barber, and many more, to explore fundamentalism in Islamic politics increased coverage of global environmental politics, including Shiva’s Stolen Harvest and Kelly’s Thinking Green, examining the relationships between developed and developing countries fresh material on socialist politics post-1989 and the rise of neo-fascist movements in the United States and Europe, including analysis of Hayden and Flacks’ "The Port Huron Statement at 40" and Bob Moser’s "The Age of Rage" an updated feminism chapter that considers the impact of third-wave, post-colonial, and so-called "power" feminists and incorporates new analysis of Wollstonecraft’s A Vindication of the Rights of Woman and Mohanty’s Under Western Eyes Revisited