Coming in 2023: Climate Liberalism: Perspectives on Liberty, Property and Pollution

An edited volume considering whether Classical Liberal ideas may help address climate change and other large-scale pollution problems.

In early 2023, Palgrave Macmillan will publish my latest book, Climate Liberalism: Perspectives on Liberty, Property and Pollution, an edited volume that will be part of the Palgrave Studies in Classical Liberalism.

The aim of this book is to critically assess what (if anything) Classical Liberalism has to say about how we should address large-scale externality problems, including climate change. The contributions span multiple disciplines and include both those sympathetic to and skeptical of Classical Liberalism. Contributors include: Karen Bradshaw, Mark Budolfson, Billy Christmas, Daniel H. Cole, David Dana, Ed Dolan, Monika Ehrman, Brian T. Fitzpatrick, Andrew Morriss, Mark Pennington, Dan C. Shahar, Catherine M. Sharkey, and John Thrasher.

Advance praise from Matt Zwolinski, David Schmidtz, Shi-Ling Hsu, and Lynne Kiesling can be found below the fold, along with the table of contents. Like many academic books, it's pricey, but it's a good item for libraries, and the chapters will be available electronically as well through Springer.

Advance Praise

"Political philosophies that put a lot of weight on freedom and property rights have a hard time grappling with the problem of pollution. How can we reconcile the inviolability of the individual with the ubiquity of negative externalities? The essays in this volume represent the most promising and sophisticated effort yet to come to grips with this problem. Climate Liberalism is essential reading on one of the most theoretically interesting and practically important issues of our time."

Matt Zwolinski
Professor of Philosophy, University of San Diego
Author of The Individualists: Radicals, Reactionaries,
and the Struggle for the Soul of Libertarianism

"Climate Liberalism captures a valuable and overdue conversation about classical liberal thinking and the seemingly intractable problem of climate change. Much of what is written about domestic and international climate policy boils down to nihilist political considerations, and lacks any theoretical or deontological foundation. This volume is a vital step towards filling that void."

Shi-Ling Hsu
D'Alemberte Professor
Florida State University College of Law
Author of Capitalism and the Environment

"Classical liberal scholarship has, to some extent, always been a matter of circling the wagons and defending classical liberalism per se. But classical liberalism also is a way of grappling with real practical problems, using the legal and policy tools we actually have. Classical liberal scholars have a history of working with, rather than ignoring, the most basic of all political facts: namely, people decide for themselves, not only how to pursue their own interests but also how to do what they think is right."Climate change is a problem of external cost, well-understood by classical liberals. It is also the same basic political issue that classical liberalism has a history of being well-positioned to address. Yet, the scale of the threat that climate change poses seems unprecedented. So, while we cannot afford to ignore the lessons of history, neither can we afford to deny that 'it might be different this time.' Time will tell, but this volume furthers the conversation with one remarkable essay after another.

David Schmidtz
Presidential Chair of Moral Science
West Virginia University

"This valuable collection of essays examines how classical liberal institutional frameworks rooted in property rights, decentralization, and the rule of law can inform climate policy approaches. Reflecting a range of expertise from law, political economy, and philosophy, these thoughtful essays grapple with the challenges that large-scale environmental questions pose to classical liberalism and analyze how classical liberal institutions can play a constructive role in climate policy. Climate Liberalism is a welcome contribution to ongoing climate and energy policy research and debate."

L. Lynne Kiesling
Director, Institute for Regulatory Law & Economics
Research Professor, College of Engineering, Design & Computing University of Colorado, Denver

Table of Contents

1. Introduction – Jonathan H. Adler
2. Pollution and Natural Rights – Billy Christmas
3. Do Libertarians Have Anything Useful to Contribute to Climate Change Policy? – Daniel H. Cole
4. Climate Change Adaptation through the Prism of Individual Rights – David Dana
5. Common Law Tort as a Transitional Regulatory Regime – Catherine M. Sharkey
6. Libertarianism, Pollution and the Limits of Court Adjudication – Dan C. Shahar
7. Complexities of Climate Governance in Multidimensional Property Regimes – Monika Ehrman & Karen Bradshaw
8. Climate Change & Class Actions – Brian T. Fitzpatrick
9. Nature and the Firm – Jonathan H. Adler
10. Permission, Prohibition & Dynamism – John Thrasher
11. Market Solutions to Large Number Environmental Problem-Induced Changes in Risk Distributions – Andrew Morriss
12. A Classical Liberal Case for Target-Consistent Carbon Pricing – Ed Dolan
13. Climate Change, Political Economy, and the Problem of Comparative Institutions Analysis – Mark Pennington
14. The Social Cost of Carbon, Humility, and Overlapping Consensus on Climate Policy – Mark Budolfson