This book stands against the current of judgments long settled in the schools of law in regard to classic cases such as Lochner v. New York, Near v. Minnesota, the Pentagon Papers case, and Bob Jones University v. United States. Professor Hadley Arkes takes as his subject concepts long regarded as familiar, settled principles in our law - 'prior restraints', ex post facto laws - and he shows that there is actually a mystery about them, that their meaning is not as settled or clear as we have long supposed. Arkes shows this in his text, arguing that the logic of the natural law provides the key to this chain of legal puzzles.

'Hadley Arkes has given us a work of brilliance in regards to both argument and style. Few constitutional theorists can be placed in the same class as [him]. This work demonstrates why [he], among that guild, remains unsurpassed. Those working in constitutional theory cannot preserve their intellectual integrity while ignoring his arguments … Arkes has within these pages given us a work of genius. This book belies an intellect of such range and depth that one is at once both awed and inspired. One’s impression upon the completion of this work, as with all of Arkes’s works, is that one has sat at the feet of one of the great intellects and teachers of our, or of any, time.'

Paul R. DeHart - Texas State University, San Marcos

'The line between judicial interpretation and imposition is murky. Wherever it is drawn, reverence for our first principles - in both the political and judicial spheres - is imperative if we are to preserve the society the Framers sought to perpetuate. In that endeavor, Hadley Arkes remains a beacon in the dark night.'

Source: The New Criterion

'Hadley Arkes has given us a work of brilliance in regards to both argument and style. Few constitutional theorists can be placed in the same class as Arkes. This work demonstrates why Arkes, among that guild, remains unsurpassed. Those working in constitutional theory cannot preserve their intellectual integrity while ignoring his arguments.'

Paul R. DeHart Source: Journal of Church and State

'… a highly readable and highly recommended book that uses law to analyse the much larger issue of the way in which liberal societies are constructed and how, in order to maintain and honour that construction, we must not ignore the reality of the ‘first principles’ of natural law in favour of the illusory certainty of positivist constitutionalism.'

Stephen Collins Source: The Kelvingrove Review