The One Thing No Free Society Can Survive Without

At Freedom Frequency, Senior Fellow Ross Levine, continuing his series of letters in the voice of Adam Smith, outlines the cardinal virtue that upholds all the others: justice. Justice is not the only value of a humane society, Levine notes, but a society cannot thrive unless there are rules protecting all its people from force, fraud, or other injury. Justice also is the foundation of trade and prosperity, joining people who owe one another no personal debt but who feel secure they will not be harmed by associating with strangers. Justice is corrupted by unjust judges, Levine warns, and by the allowance of the wealthy and prominent to warp it to their needs. “Let the law become a respecter of persons—and the ground on which you have built your society will give way beneath you,” he concludes.

Read more here.