This is the Cato Daily Podcast for Monday, March 14th, 2016.

I'm Caleb Brown.

One virtue of the common law over overt legislation is that common law evolves. Legislation represents at best the

interests of lawmakers at a particular moment in time. Jim Harper, Senior Fellow at

the Cato Institute, discusses his new piece detailing why

libertarians should better appreciate common law. We're all fans of

spontaneous order in the world of economics, but we should also appreciate spontaneous order in law. That is rules that come about because of people's actions.

Historically, the law originates with how people act, becoming concretized, that is forming

up into rules that are so common, so universal, that they are the law.

When you talk about legislation versus law, the common law represents, in view at least a clearer understanding that

comports more with what people think about stuff that is to say what their

expectations might actually be?

That's a way of putting it.

And it could be useful to distinguish more carefully between legislation and law.

Legislation being taxed that somebody wrote. legislation and

wrote a law and the legislation being taxed that somebody wrote at one given point in time.

A legislature got together and wrote a law and the words that were written down,

that legislation become the rule set.

On the other hand, the law or common law is the rule set that begins with the society, begins

with the society at large and how they chose to organize themselves.

In general, how does common law actually function in courts in the United States.

Common law is used and is advanced when parties to a dispute come before a court and

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