Hayek's Jurisprudence: And Ratnapala's Hayek

Abstract

Suri Ratnapala is one of the keenest and most insightful analysts of the thought of the great economist and social thinker F. A. Hayek. Hayek was the leading exemplar of the historical, or evolutionary, theory of law in the latter half of the 20th century, but his jurisprudential thought has been largely neglected by legal scholars. In two articles, Ratnapala outlined the core ideas of Hayek’s legal philosophy and developed their place within Hayek’s larger theory of economics, social thought, and epistemology. This article reviews Ratnapala’s analysis of Hayek’s legal theory and offers a few elaborations thereon.

Keywords: common law jurisprudence, economics, evolutionary epistemology, Friedrich A. Hayek, F. A. Hayek, Suri Ratnapala, social thought

JEL Classification: B31