The New Zealand Business Roundtable released today Fairness in a Liberal Society, a paper by Professor Richard Epstein, James Parker Hall Distinguished Service Professor of Law at the University of Chicago. The paper is based on a lecture given by Professor Epstein during a visit to New Zealand in August 2004.

Executive director Roger Kerr said that fairness was a core social value and fairness arguments often reinforced other arguments for public policy changes. Examples over the last 20 years included the fight against inflation, the freeing up of the labour market, the introduction of fees for higher education and moves towards a flatter tax structure.

In addressing the issue, Professor Epstein refers first to the standard criterion that an improvement in economic welfare occurs if a policy change leaves no person worse off and some people better off. This rule can also be interpreted in terms of fairness: as Epstein puts it, "When there are circumstances in which nobody loses from a change, we do not want to call the first state fair and the second state unfair". An application of this point would be reductions in personal taxes even though those who pay no tax would not be immediate beneficiaries.

The paper is structured under four headings: the question of fairness with respect to individual rights to self-ownership and ownership of property; how fairness relates to voluntary exchanges; the protection of entitlements against aggression; and how to judge the fairness of the distribution of income or wealth.

Epstein argues that policies for wealth creation are far more powerful than redistributionist schemes for creating opportunity and raising incomes, and he cautions against social policies based on envy rather than genuine notions of fairness.

He also discusses the relative roles of private and public welfare in giving expression to concepts of fairness in a liberal society. On this point Epstein notes that the "classical liberal position" is that "the person who has enjoyed good fortune and acquired wealth is the person most subject to imperfect obligations to make voluntary transfers [to those less fortunate]."

Fairness in a Liberal Society is one of the thirteen lectures Professor Epstein delivered during his 2004 visit to New Zealand. Each is being published by the New Zealand Business Roundtable.

Purchase Fairness in a Liberal Society ($12.50 plus postage and handling)
Download as a PDF for free (Requires Adobe Acrobat)

For more information, contact:

Roger Kerr
Executive Director
Ph: 04 499 0790
Email: rkerr@nzbr.org.nz

Web: www.nzbr.org.nz