Leonard Liggio
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Leonard P. Liggio (July 5, 1933 – October 14, 2014) was a
classical liberal Classical liberalism is a political tradition and a branch of liberalism that advocates free market and laissez-faire economics and civil liberties under the rule of law, with special emphasis on individual autonomy, limited government, eco ...
author, research professor of law at
George Mason University George Mason University (GMU) is a Public university, public research university in Fairfax County, Virginia, United States. Located in Northern Virginia near Washington, D.C., the university is named in honor of George Mason, a Founding Father ...
and executive vice president of the
Atlas Network Atlas Network, formerly known as Atlas Economic Research Foundation, is a non-governmental, non-partisan 501(c)(3) organization based in the United States that provides training, networking, and grants for libertarian, free-market, and Conserva ...
in
Fairfax, Virginia Fairfax ( ) is an independent city (United States), independent city in Virginia and the county seat of Fairfax County, Virginia, in the United States. As of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, the population was 24,146. Fairfax is pa ...
.


Career

In 1965, Liggio gave lectures with Russell Stetler on "Imperialism and Anti-Imperialism: The Ideological Question in Vietnam" for the newly founded Free University of New York. He provided editorial direction for ''Literature of Liberty: A Review of Contemporary Liberal Thought'', a periodical published by the
Cato Institute The Cato Institute is an American libertarian think tank headquartered in Washington, D.C. It was founded in 1977 by Ed Crane, Murray Rothbard, and Charles Koch, chairman of the board and chief executive officer of Koch Industries.Koch ...
from 1978 to 1979, then by the Institute for Humane Studies from 1980 to 1982. Liggio was a visiting professor of law at the Francisco Marroquin University in
Guatemala City Guatemala City (, also known colloquially by the nickname Guate), is the Capital city, national capital and largest city of the Guatemala, Republic of Guatemala. It is also the Municipalities of Guatemala, municipal capital of the Guatemala Depa ...
, at the Academia Istropolitana in Bratislava (
Slovakia Slovakia, officially the Slovak Republic, is a landlocked country in Central Europe. It is bordered by Poland to the north, Ukraine to the east, Hungary to the south, Austria to the west, and the Czech Republic to the northwest. Slovakia's m ...
), at the Institute for Political and Economic Studies (
Georgetown University Georgetown University is a private university, private Jesuit research university in Washington, D.C., United States. Founded by Bishop John Carroll (archbishop of Baltimore), John Carroll in 1789, it is the oldest Catholic higher education, Ca ...
) and at the University of Aix-en-Provence, France. He was executive director of the
John Templeton Foundation The John Templeton Foundation (Templeton Foundation) is a Philanthropy, philanthropic organization founded by John Templeton in 1987. Templeton became wealthy as a Contrarian investing, contrarian investor, and wanted to support progress in relig ...
Freedom Project at the
Atlas Network Atlas Network, formerly known as Atlas Economic Research Foundation, is a non-governmental, non-partisan 501(c)(3) organization based in the United States that provides training, networking, and grants for libertarian, free-market, and Conserva ...
, where he led the International Freedom Project from 1998 to 2003. He was a distinguished senior scholar with the Institute for Humane Studies, where he served as director of Programs in History and Social Theory from 1974 to 1977, as executive vice-president from 1979 to 1980 and then as president from 1980 to 1989. Liggio served the Humane Studies Foundation as chairman from 1980 to 1994, and then as vice-chairman from 1994 to 1998.


International activities

Liggio had an international influence. In 1958, he attended his first meeting of the
Mont Pelerin Society The Mont Pelerin Society (MPS), founded in 1947, is an international academic society of Economist, economists, Political philosophy, political philosophers, and other Intelligentsia, intellectuals who share a classical liberal outlook. It is hea ...
in the United States, held at
Princeton University Princeton University is a private university, private Ivy League research university in Princeton, New Jersey, United States. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth, New Jersey, Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the List of Colonial ...
. He became a member of the program committee for the society's 1994 meeting at
Cannes Cannes (, ; , ; ) is a city located on the French Riviera. It is a communes of France, commune located in the Alpes-Maritimes departments of France, department, and host city of the annual Cannes Film Festival, Midem, and Cannes Lions Internatio ...
in 1992. In 1996, he became its treasurer until 2000 as well as a member of its Program and Planning Committee for the 1998 Society meeting in Washington, D.C., and of its board of directors until 2006. He became the chairman of its program committee for the 2002 meeting in
London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...
, England. He was then vice-president of the Mont Pelerin Society from 2000 to 2002 and its president from 2002 to 2004. He has been senior vice-president since 2004 and due to leave in 2006. Liggio was a trustee with the
Competitive Enterprise Institute The Competitive Enterprise Institute (CEI) is a non-profit libertarian think tank founded by the political writer Fred L. Smith Jr. on March 9, 1984, in Washington, D.C., to advance principles of limited government, free enterprise, and individ ...
since 1994 and the Institute for Economic Studies-Europe in Aix-en-Provence since 1999. From 1988 to 1998, he had been a trustee of the Philadelphia Society, of which he was president from 1992 to 1993 and from 1994 to 1995. He had been also a trustee with the Institute for Humane Studies-Europe in Paris from 1989 to 1999 and of the Acton Institute for the Study of Religion and Liberty from 1990 to 1999. He also served on the boards of a number of other think tanks: :Member of the international advisory council, The Social Affairs Unit, Morley House, London, since 1994; :Member, board of trustees, Liberty Fund; :Member, advisory council, Acton Institute, Rome, Italy; :Member, advisory council, Institut Tocqueville, Paris, France; :Member, advisory council, Hayek Institute, Vienna, Austria; :Member, scientific council, Institut Turgot, Paris, France; :Member of the honorary board of trustees, Fundación Burke, Spain; :Member, editorial board, Centro Interdisciplinar de Ética e Economia Personalista, Brazil. As part of the circle of anti-state libertarians led by
Murray Rothbard Murray Newton Rothbard (; March 2, 1926 – January 7, 1995) was an American economist of the Austrian School,Ronald Hamowy, ed., 2008, The Encyclopedia of Libertarianism', Cato Institute, Sage, , p. 62: "a leading economist of the Austri ...
during the 1950s, he played an important role in the development of modern libertarian philosophy in the United States. He was also a member of the Philadelphia Society.


Editorial activities

Liggio was a member of the editorial board at the '' Cato Journal'' since 1981, of the ''American Journal of Jurisprudence'' at Notre Dame Law School since 1995 and of ''Markets & Morality'' since 2000. He was the editor of '' Literature of Liberty: A Review of Contemporary Liberal Thought '' from 1978 to 1982. In 1965, with
Murray Rothbard Murray Newton Rothbard (; March 2, 1926 – January 7, 1995) was an American economist of the Austrian School,Ronald Hamowy, ed., 2008, The Encyclopedia of Libertarianism', Cato Institute, Sage, , p. 62: "a leading economist of the Austri ...
and George Resch, Liggio created '' Left and Right: A Journal of Libertarian Thought'', a publication which emphasized "common philosophical bonds uniting the anarchism and isolationism of the Old Right, and the instinctive pacifistic
anarchism Anarchism is a political philosophy and Political movement, movement that seeks to abolish all institutions that perpetuate authority, coercion, or Social hierarchy, hierarchy, primarily targeting the state (polity), state and capitalism. A ...
characterizing the
New Left The New Left was a broad political movement that emerged from the counterculture of the 1960s and continued through the 1970s. It consisted of activists in the Western world who, in reaction to the era's liberal establishment, campaigned for freer ...
in the middle sixties".


Death

Liggio died on October 14, 2014. He was a Catholic.


Bibliography


Articles by Leonard Liggio


"The Heritage of the Spanish Scholastics"
''Religion and Liberty'', January–February 2000.
"Christianity, Classical Liberalism are Liberty's Foundations"
''Religion and Liberty'', September–October 1996.
"Freedom and Virtue"
review of ''Freedom and Virtue: The Conservative/Libertarian Debate'' by George W. Carey (Ed.), ''Religion and Liberty'', September–October 1998. *


Articles about Leonard Liggio


''Atlas Network''

''Radicals for Capitalism: A Freewheeling History of the Modern American Libertarian Movement'', by Brian Doherty, describes Liggio's role in the modern libertarian movement


References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Liggio, Leonard 1933 births 2014 deaths American libertarians American Roman Catholics Catholic libertarians George Mason University faculty Member of the Mont Pelerin Society