Hadley Arkes

Hadley Arkes, the Edward N. Ney Professor of Jurisprudence and American Institutions emeritus at Amherst College, is the founding director of the James Wilson Institute on Natural Rights and the American Founding. His previous books include First Things: An Inquiry into the First Principles of Morals and Justice and Natural Rights and the Right to Choose.

Posts by Hadley Arkes

April 27, 2023

Are There Such Things as “Natural” Rights?

It is never out of season to recall James Wilson’s line that the purpose of the Constitution was not to invent new rights “by a human establishment,” but to secure and enlarge the rights we already have by nature. Continue Reading...