| • Science | • People | • Locations | • Timeline |
After attending Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois and Harvard Law School in Cambridge, Massachusettss, Barnett worked as a State's Attorney ( prosecutor) in Chicago, Illinois. Barnett initially taught at the Chicago-Kent College of Law of the Illinois Institute of Technology; he later became the Austin B. Fletcher Professor of Law at Boston University. Barnett has also twice been a Visiting Professor of Law at Harvard Law School. He is a Senior Fellow of the Cato Institute. Barnett is noted for his work on constitutional law, contract theory and on libertarian theories of law. His book,The Structure of Liberty was awarded the Ralph Gregory Elliot Book in 1998.
Main article: The Structure of Liberty
The Structure of Liberty is a book by legal theorist Randy Barnett which offers a libertarian theory of law and politics. Barnett calls his theory the liberal conception of justice, emphasizing the relationship between legal libertarianism and classical liberalism.
Barnett has also done work on the theory of the United States Constitution, culminating in his book Restoring the Lost Constitution. He argues for an original meaning theory of constitutional interpretation and argues this leads a presumption of liberty.
Barnett is also a lead lawyer for the plaintiffs in Raich v. Ashcroft , which won a victory before the Ninth Circuit, ruling that federal action against legal marijuana patients violated the commerce clause.
Barnett is also known for his work on the history and original meaning of the SecondThe Second Amendment to the United States Constitution, part of the Bill of Rights, prevents the federal government from infringing on the right to keep and bear firearms. Only the federal government is considered inhibited by the Amendment; the provision and Ninth Amendments to the United States Constitution. Barnett is a leading proponent of the view that the "rights retained by the people" in the Ninth Amendment are judicially enforceable (thru the presumption of liberty). He has also advanced the view that the Second Amendment creates an individual right to bear arms.
Barnett is also known for is work in contract theory. In that field he has advanced a distinctive theory of contract formation that emphasizes the intention to be bound as the key to contract law. He is also known for his work on the idea of a default rule, i.e. a rule of contract law that binds the parties if their contract does not cover the eventuality or condition that is the subject of the default rule.