Scalia v. Epstein: Two Views on Judicial Activism

Antonin Scalia · Richard A. Epstein

Jan 1985 · Cato Institute

About this ebook

With the appointment of William H. Rehnquist as Chief Justice of the United States and Antonin Scalia as associate justice, there is renewed interest in questions of judicial activism and the role of the courts in protecting personal and economic liberties. To further public discussion of these fundamental questions, the Cato Institute is pleased to present this debate between Judge Scalia and Richard A.Epstein, James Parker Hall Professor of Law at the University of Chicago and editor of the Journal of Legal Studies. These papers were originally delivered at the Cato Institute's conference "Economic Liberties and the Judiciary" on October 26,1984, and appeared in the Winter 1985 issue of the Cato Journal.

About the author

Antonin Scalia is the Associate Justice of the Supreme Court.

Richard A. Epstein, the Laurence A. Tisch Professor of Law at NYU Law School, is an expert on numerous areas of the law, including property, torts, land use, civil procedure, contract law, workers' compensation, and Roman law. He is the author of Takings: Private Property and Eminent Domain, Mortal Peril: Our Inalienable Right to Health Care, Skepticism and Freedom: A Modern Case for Classical Liberalism, and Simple Rules for a Complex World. He is also the Peter and Kirsten Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution, and a senior lecturer at the University of Chicago where he was on the regular faculty from 1973 to 2010.