The ESG movement—Environmental, Social, and Governance—achieved the rare feat of moving from business schools and boardrooms into mainstream public and political discourse. What began as a technical framework for evaluating firm-level risk has, over time, evolved into a sweeping set of expectations about what corporations owe not only shareholders but also society at large. In that evolution, ESG has taken...

　　There is a question that legal systems have answered, with remarkable consistency, for centuries: when a decision cannot be undone, how much institutional gravity should surround it? The death penalty, the severing of parental rights, the deportation of a citizen—around these acts, civilized orders built their most demanding procedural architectures. Adversarial hearings. Independent judges. The obligation to exhaust every alternative...

　　Jürgen Habermas (1929–2026) dominated post-war European liberal philosophy. He dedicated his life to the rational foundation of a global liberal order and the post-national European Union. 　　Loaded with philosophical terms, his writing does not invite the reader, yet there is pathos in the background. Habermas addressed the question of whether the Enlightenment was the cause of the German genocides and...

　　In the past few weeks, Hungary has been in the news. The election pitted Viktor Orbán, the controversial prime minister who has ruled for sixteen years, against a former member of his own party, Péter Magyar. To European and American observers, the election was about the fate of liberty against a would-be autocrat. Hungary, it seems, has always been a...

　　The freedom of association is surely the humblest and least-touted First Amendment right, and yet, as Luke Sheahan explains in this keynote lecture, it is crucial for preserving our liberty and rejuvenating our culture. Natural and freely-chosen human associations are our best defense against a political clerisy that often feels entitled to social engineer American life. Free citizens should be...

　　The current United States–Israeli war with Iran is intended, in part, to prevent that nation from acquiring a nuclear weapon. For Israel, a nuclear-armed Iran—sworn to the destruction of the Jewish state—is an existential threat. For the United States and its regional and European allies, an Iranian regime capable of launching intermediate-range ballistic missiles is untenable. 　　This war, however, should...

　　John Locke’s A Letter Concerning Toleration is widely regarded as a foundational text of religious liberty. For centuries, thinkers have praised its clarity, moral confidence, and rejection of the coercive religious politics that prevailed in early modern Europe. On the surface, Locke offers a simple and powerful claim: the state has no authority over the salvation of souls, and therefore...

　　Niall Ferguson received Liberty Fund’s George F. Will Award for advancing our understanding of the wellsprings of Western prosperity on April 13, 2026, in Washington, DC. The award recognizes individuals who, like George F. Will, have made significant contributions to our understanding of the free society, individual liberty, and the human condition. 　　Niall Ferguson’s work takes liberty seriously—not as an inevitability,...

　　On March 19, 1776—two days after America’s Continental Army forced the British Army to evacuate Boston—John Adams, attending Congress in Philadelphia, wrote to his wife Abigail, at home in Massachusetts, in reply to her inquiry about the public reception of America’s first “best seller,” Thomas Paine’s Common Sense. That anonymous author’s “Sentiments of the Abilities of America, and of the...

　　The pope and the president are at odds with each other, and Sohrab Ahmari isn’t happy about it. In an April 15, 2026, essay for UnHerd, he lamented the president and vice president’s intemperate words about Pope Leo, and suggested a diagnosis some might find startling. This friction, Ahmari thinks, is the bad fruit of Catholic neo-conservatives like Fr. John...

　　California may put an extraordinary wealth tax before voters this fall. Under the proposal, anyone worth more than a billion dollars would see 5 percent of their wealth taken next year. Supporters cast it as a one-time measure targeting only the super-wealthy, yet that reassuring description may mislead voters. A state that enacts such a tax to fill its empty...

　　April 23 may not be the “perfect date” (a title reserved for the 25th), but it comes close to fans of literature and flowers. April 23 marks St. George’s Day, the patron saint of a surprising number of countries, including England, Catalonia (in Spain), Portugal, Georgia, and Ethiopia. It is also recognized as World Book Day, an extension of its...