Jud Campbell, a new professor at Stanford Law, has been the subject of debate regarding his arguments on the founders' understanding of rights when drafting the First Amendment. Campbell's work has been criticized by some, including Friedrich Hayek, for his reliance on Thomas Paine and social-contract theory, which they argue is a mistake. Hayek contends that the American founders' starting point was the whig tradition and the principles of the unwritten English constitution, not social contract theory. Based on the tweets, there is ongoing debate and criticism about Campbell's interpretation of the American founders' understanding of rights.
Have these people read the Constitution? https://t.co/jeuedTFQHv
Jud Campbell fails to distinguish between the idea of the contrast between the rule of law and the rule of men which is central to English and American whig thought & contrast between sovereignty of the people through representation & sovereignty in a king https://t.co/lY6K42vYTu
Jud Campbell is mistaken, the starting point of the American founders was not Hobbes and social contract theory, it was the whig tradition and mythos of ancient English rights and institutions and of the principles of the unwritten English constitition https://t.co/lY6K42vYTu
Understanding the American Founders—and their understanding of their rights as inherited from the principles of the unwritten English constitution—through Hobbes, Locke, and Paine is just a mistake, and too much of this analysis from Jud Campbell seems to depend on this mistake. https://t.co/5Q3IpmnMxm
Jud Campbell's work is premised on a straight up and demonstrable falsehood, "The intellectual foundation of Founding Era constitutionalism was social-contract theory." https://t.co/wp3ipcUS66
Jud Campbell immediately destroys his credibility with me when he immediately goes to Thomas Paine as his "authority" on how natural rights were understood by Americans of the founding generation .. https://t.co/wp3ipcUS66
Let me introduce you to a little something called the United States Constitution: https://t.co/9zXcPPO8yo https://t.co/2HeGHMQCdF
New professor Jud Campbell, JD '11, has made novel arguments about how the founders thought about the idea of rights when drafting the First Amendment. Read the #StanfordLawMag profile on the North Carolina native who used to write history papers for fun. https://t.co/5LNGwnSq93 https://t.co/FzmyUlJY6P