Cato Event Podcast

Join us for a discussion of Eric Claeys’s forthcoming book, Natural Property Rights (forthcoming, Cambridge University Press). The book introduces and defends a theory of property relying on labor, natural rights, and traditional principles of natural law. Justified on those grounds, property rights protect individual freedom, but they also help government officials resolve the basic resource conflicts that arise in property law. Natural Property Rights illustrates this with examples from real estate, oil and gas, tangible personal property, water rights, government regulatory and taking powers (and constitutional limits on those). Claeys’s work in this area was recently the focus of a symposium hosted by Texas A&M University’s Journal of Property Law.Matthew Cavedon will respond by commenting on the historical context for John Locke’s work, on which Claeys relies. Cavedon will argue that Spanish Renaissance scholar Francisco Suárez offers nuances regarding the relationship between natural law and property rights that correct for deficiencies in Lockean theory. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The Association of American Medical Colleges projects a shortage of as many as 48,000 primary care physicians by 2034. Yet there are not enough residency positions for the number of medical school graduates. Missouri became the first state to address this problem by launching a new licensure category: assistant physician (AP). APs are essentially apprentice physicians. The reform lets graduates without a residency position provide primary care in clinics while enhancing their knowledge and skills. Six other states have passed similar laws: Arkansas, Kansas, Utah, Arizona, Louisiana, and Idaho.Please join Kevin D. Dayaratna, PhD, a senior research fellow at the Heritage Foundation’s Center for Data Analysis; Keith J. Frederick, DO, a former Missouri legislator who spearheaded the country’s first AP law; and Lyman Wostrel, MD, a primary care physician practicing under Missouri’s AP law, to discuss this issue. Cato Institute senior fellow Jeffrey A. Singer, MD, will moderate the discussion. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

On Sunday, May 14, NATO’s most controversial ally will hold perhaps its most fateful elections since its founding in 1923. President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, who has been ruling Turkey for 21 years in an increasingly authoritarian and erratic fashion, may win and drag the nation further toward dictatorship. But there is also a chance that the opposition may win, as the race is tight and as Turkey’s elections are still competitive despite dramatic deterioration in the country’s freedoms and rule of law.Please join us for a discussion of what is at stake just two days prior to what may turn out to be a historic election for Turkey and East‐​West relations. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Join us online for the launch of an inspiring new book from Anthony Sanders of the Institute for Justice, Baby Ninth Amendments: How Americans Embraced Unenumerated Rights and Why It Matters (University of Michigan Press, 2023). The book tells the unheralded story of how Americans carefully sought to protect liberty from overweening government by including in most state constitutions specific provisions (so‐​called Baby Ninths) that expressly protect unenumerated rights.Sanders explains why it is impossible to itemize every right a constitution should protect and shows that however many rights are specifically enumerated, other important rights will inevitably go unmentioned. So what is a constitutional drafter to do? Sanders argues that early in American history, a solution was advanced by drafters of state constitutions in the form of what he calls an “etcetera clause” that contains language borrowed directly from the Ninth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. As a result, two‐​thirds of states today contain these “Baby Ninth Amendments” that even skeptics of unenumerated rights must not only acknowledge but also give meaningful substance to. This has important implications for state courts, which have thus far largely ignored these important provisions, and for the larger question of whether it is ever appropriate—or indeed even mandatory—for judges to protect unenumerated rights. The short answers, as Sanders makes clear, are yes and yes.Clark Neily will talk with Sanders about his new book. Join us online on May 10 at noon. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

What is money? What makes money better or worse? And how can the past inform our future? Between the rise of cryptocurrencies and the risks posed by central bank digital currencies, these questions have become more important than ever. The Cato Institute is therefore pleased to welcome both Lawrence White and Dror Goldberg to present their latest books, Better Money: Gold, Fiat, or Bitcoin? and Easy Money: American Puritans and the Invention of Modern Currency, respectively, which seek to answer these questions and more. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Does the future of environmental stewardship depend more on innovation or regulation? In Time to Think Small, Todd Myers argues that protecting the planet requires small, decentralized technologies, like smartphone apps, rather than sweeping top‐​down government programs. The book explores how these brand‐​new approaches are already helping to win some of the most important environmental struggles humanity faces, including fighting climate change, combating pollution in drinking water, protecting endangered animals, and keeping plastic out of the oceans. Personal technologies are transforming how we address environmental challenges by enhancing the power of individuals to conserve nature. This tremendous power is not only growing but also has the benefit of being independent of shifts in political leadership. And while governments act slowly, lightly regulated companies and nonprofits are comparatively nimble innovators in a marketplace of ideas. Can human ingenuity and free enterprise sidestep political gridlock, diplomatic friction, and bureaucracy to create solutions to our most pressing environmental problems? Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Over the span of 30 years, NATO went from an alliance of 16 states optimized to contain the Soviet Union to a grouping of 31 (soon to be 32) states spread across Europe, divided by threat perception and capability. In Evaluating NATO Enlargement: From Cold War Victory to the Russia‐​Ukraine War, Cato nonresident senior fellow Joshua Shifrinson and coeditor Jim Goldgeier of the Brookings Institution capture the debates about the effects of NATO enlargement and the alliance’s impact on European and global security. On the eve of NATO’s annual summit and at a time when debates over NATO’s role in the Russia‐​Ukraine war hang over international politics, please join us for an online book forum with Shifrinson, Goldgeier, and two of the volume’s contributors for a discussion of how NATO enlargement has affected U.S. national security, transatlantic politics, and relations with Moscow. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Recently, De Anza Community College fired Tabia Lee as its faculty director for the Office of Equity, Social Justice and Multicultural Education for taking an inclusive and dialogical approach to her job that did not align with the school’s particular version of social justice. What makes this different from others who have lost their jobs for not toeing this ideological line? Lee is black, and she was accused of being a white supremacist. Erec Smith of York College of Pennsylvania has also been vilified for questioning the efficacies of contemporary anti‐​racist theories and practices.In this online forum, Lee and Smith will discuss their experiences and theorizations about being black academics who embrace classical liberal values in academic spaces that seem to grow increasingly hostile to such views, especially from people of color. As cofounders of Free Black Thought, an organization that celebrates viewpoint diversity among black Americans, their perspective may provide a different and nuanced understanding of social justice and anti‐​racist initiatives in higher education (and beyond). Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.