Abstract

Anarchocapitalism, at least in its Rothbardian version, presupposes the existence of a natural order or law of human affairs. First, there is a brief discussion of the distinction between orders of natural and orders of artificial persons. This is followed by a partial analysis of the notion of law as an order of persons. The analysis is presented as a formal axiomatic theory. Then the notion of a natural person as well as the postulates that we need for a description of natural law as an order of natural persons are introduced within that formal theory of the law of persons. The last two sections discuss various ways in which the theory of natural law can be linked to descriptions of human affairs, and contrast the anarchocapitalists’ view of the order of the human world with the alternatives that have come to dominate political and social thought.