----- Original Message ----- From: "Michael Perelman" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
> This article is excellent. We should discuss such matters in more detail. > > Would it not be better to give a few lines of text which might indicate > whether the URL is of interest or not? > > On Mon, Oct 01, 2001 at 07:39:42AM -0700, Ian Murray wrote: > > < http://www.thenation.com/doc.mhtml?i=20011015&s=greider > =============== "The most disturbing aspect of Chapter 11, however, is not its private arbitration system but its expansive new definition of property rights--far beyond the established terms in US jurisprudence and with a potential to override established rights in domestic law. NAFTA's new investor protections actually mimic a radical revision of constitutional law that the American right has been aggressively pushing for years--redefining public regulation as a government "taking" of private property that requires compensation to the owners, just as when government takes private land for a highway or park it has to pay its fair value. ... "Property rights are included in the International Declaration of Human Rights, but they've always gotten short shrift from an international standpoint because the international legal community is very left wing and doesn't care about property rights." Epstein writes as if the legal realist movement never existed. Excellent material for counterblasting his ideas can be found in Morton Horwitz' two volume study on "The Transformation of American Law". Lot's of stuff can be fond in good law journals that tackle "law & economics" issues from a leftish perspective. Epstein's argument taken to it's "ultimate" conclusions would mean a possible end to taxation itself. Ian
