This is what happens when lawyers are allowed to read fiction
Eugene Volokh links to Harry Potter and the Half-Crazed Bureaucracy, a scholarly article on the libertarian implications of the Ministry of Magic's disgraceful conduct. A sample from the abstract:Second, government is controlled by and for the benefit of the self-interested bureaucrat. The most cold-blooded public choice theorist could not present a bleaker portrait of a government captured by special interests and motivated solely by a desire to increase bureaucratic power and influence. Consider this partial list of government activities: a) torturing children for lying; b) utilizing a prison designed and staffed specifically to suck all life and hope out of the inmates; c) placing citizens in that prison without a hearing; d) allows the death penalty without a trial; e) allowing the powerful, rich or famous to control policy and practice; f) selective prosecution (the powerful go unpunished and the unpopular face trumped-up charges); g) conducting criminal trials without independent defense counsel; h) using truth serum to force confessions; i) maintaining constant surveillance over all citizens; j) allowing no elections whatsoever and no democratic lawmaking process; k) controlling the press.
I'll report back after I've read the paper itself.
UPDATE: Finished reading the paper. It's only 21 pages, so it's a quick read. Not overly impressed. It raises some interesting points, but all told, it's pretty fluffy.
I'll report back after I've read the paper itself.
UPDATE: Finished reading the paper. It's only 21 pages, so it's a quick read. Not overly impressed. It raises some interesting points, but all told, it's pretty fluffy.