Chapter 1: The Liberal Premise ; Commitments in Search of a Premise ; The Harm Principle ; The Ends, Means, Reach, and Shape of Government ; Liberal Alternatives to the Harm Principle ; The Modesty of the Harm Principle ; The Self: Autonomous Solitary or Communal Solidary? ; A Few Words about Reason ; Chapter 2: Constructing Harm from Natural Rights: The Cases of Locke and Nozick ; The Traditional Neglect of Harm ; Locke and the Indeterminacy of Harm ; Nozick and the Relativity of Harm ; Ignorance and Harm ; The Relativity of Property ; Chapter 3: The Meaning of Harm Derived from Interests: Feinberg's Harm Principle ; The Butterfly Effect ; Wrongful Harmdoing: Harm as Wrongful Setback to Interest ; The Interest Criterion ; The Setback Criterion ; The Criterion of Wrongfulness ; Harmless Wrongdoing ; Harm in Criminal and Civil Contexts ; Aggregative Harms and the Problem of Risk ; Accumulative Harms and the Problem of Causation ; Chapter 4: Collective Harms and the Market: Problems of Causation ; The Market as Natural Force ; The Market as Human Agency ; Addressing Market Harms ; Competition Harms ; Investment Harms and the Problem of Planning ; Market Harms and Harms to Market ; Production Harms and Restrictions on Property ; Employment Harms and Working Conditions ; A Note on Market Socialism ; Welfare Harms ; Chapter 5: Taxation, Welfare, and Benefits ; The Problem of Charity ; Positive and Negative Rights ; Welfare Benefits ; Projects ; Self-provisioning ; Rule-Making ; Preventing Incipient Harms ; Duty to rescue ; Education and Families ; Chapter 6: The Duty to Act: Toward the Fiduciary Ethic ; Proximity and the Duty to Act ; Special Relationships and the Duty to Act ; The Fiduciary Ethic ; Chapter 7: The Forms of Intervention ; Modes and Types of Intervention ; Modes of Intervention ; Types of Intervention ; General Limiting Principles of Intervention ; Proportionality Principle ; Principle of Least Intrusion ; Retroactivity Principle ; Equality Principle ; Principle of Procedural Fairness ; Redressing Harm ; Aggregative Harms ; Accumulative Harms ; Regulation vs. Litigation: The Case for Licensing ; Chapter 8: What Who? ; Why Who? ; Democracy and the Harm Principle ; Stakeholders: Ownership and Independence as the Basis of Political Power ; Expertise as the Basis of Political Power ; Citizenship as the Basis of Political Power ; Restraints on Government Power ; Restraints Preserved in a Constitution ; Separation of Powers ; Laws Applied Equally to All, Including Legislators ; Non-Delegation of Legislative Power ; Frequent Elections and Universal Suffrage ; Freedom of Speech and Press ; A Note on Rights ; Other Constitutional Restraints ; Against Constitutionalizing the Harm Principle ; Chapter 9: Paternalism and the Time Line ; Self-Regarding and Other-Regarding Behavior ; Consent to Risks ; Consent to Harms ; Banning Permanent Deprivations of Liberty ; Custom and Paternalism ; Some Notes on Exploitation ; Self Binding ; The Time Line ; Soft Paternalism as Liberty Limiting ; Chapter 10: Harm to Norms ; Expectations and the Externality Constraint ; Disobeying Religious Commands: Provoking the Wrath of God ; Prohibiting Immoral Conduct ; Immorality as Harm to Community ; Banning Actual Immorality ; Actual Immorality and Community ; Actual Immorality and Personal Distress ; Harmless Immorality ; The Communitarian Challenge to Liberalism ; Community as Source of Value ; Civic Republicanism ; Multiculturalism and Group Rights ; Harms by Community: Association and Equality ; Chapter 11: Liberalism Redressed ; Farewell to Zoon Politikon: Value Beyond the State ; The Passive Nobility of Liberalism ; Millian Moments: Is the Harm Principle at Work in the Real World? ; Facing Up to Harm ; Appendix: Four Liberal Premises and Their Problems ; The Consent Premise ; The Dialogue Premise ; The Equality Premise ; The Neutrality Premise ; Acknowledgments ; References

"Liberalism Undressed is Lieberman's masterwork, a brilliant, provactive and mature product of decades of thought about some of the most fundamental issues of our time or any time. ... His book belongs on the shelf next to the works of John Rawls, Robert Nozick, and Ronald Dworkin."--New York Law Journal "In Liberalism Undressed, a book deeply immersed in the political and legal thought of the last several centuries, Jethro Lieberman revives to powerful effect JS Mill's largely ignored "harm principle." With great clarity, elegance, wit and a good deal of common sense, Lieberman demonstrates that we can find in Mill's principle a justification for liberal government. By addressing a wide range of public policy issues with the harm principle in hand, he derives a potent theory of state powers. Fearless in his rejection of the arguments of a multitude of contemporary pundits and theorists, Lieberman offers the reader a humane guide that should enable us to preserve the liberty of liberalism in a world of necessary interdependence and government involvement."--Arlene Saxonhouse, Caroline Robbins Collegiate Professor of Political Science, University of Michigan "Jethro Lieberman has, for many years, been one of our most accomplished and thoughtful commentators on the law. He brings to legal, political, and cultural analysis the acumen of a philosopher, the common-sense wisdom of a practitioner, and the flair of a literary stylist. In an age when "liberal" has become an epithet, Lieberman brilliantly reformulates and recaptures the kind of liberalism that Edmund Burke articulated two centuries ago, and that even conservatives like me can cherish."--Stephen B. Presser, Raoul Berger Professor of Legal History, Northwestern University School of Law "As one reads through Jethro Lieberman's Liberalism Undressed, it becomes increasingly clear that this is the work of an extraordinarily wise, insightful and well-educated person. It also helps that Lieberman is a splendid writer."--Yale Kamisar, Professor Emeritus, University of Michigan Law School "Liberalism Undressed is a thought-provoking exploration into the enduring relevance of the classical liberal political ideal in the modern world. The reader will come away with valuable insights into the proper role of government in a free society."--Senator Joseph I. Lieberman

Selling point: first book to take Mills's harm principle seriously as the basis for generating the political principles, institutions, and practices of liberalism Selling point: clearly constructs the theory of liberalism in a language accessible to a non-specialist audience

Jethro K. Lieberman is the author of The Litigious Society and many other books. He has had a varied career: as a practicing lawyer, both in private practice and as a Navy JAG officer; as a journalist, working as Legal Affairs Editor of Business Week; and as a Professor, both at New York Law School and, as adjunct professor of Political Science, at Columbia University.

Selling point: first book to take Mills's harm principle seriously as the basis for generating the political principles, institutions, and practices of liberalism Selling point: clearly constructs the theory of liberalism in a language accessible to a non-specialist audience