Essays & News

Rule of law: The universal unwritten constitution Martin van Staden ABSTRACT Constitutionalism – one of classical liberalism’s significant legacies in jurisprudence – is the idea that the state must be subject to law; in particular, that state power must be subject to legal limitation. Every written constitutional instrument in the world differs on the scope […]

  Democracy has not proved to be a certain protection against tyranny and oppression, as once it was hoped. Nevertheless, as a convention which enables any majority to rid itself of a government it does not like, democracy is an inestimable value.   Friedrich A. von Hayek (1899-1992)   TAKE AWAY Nach F.A. von Hayek […]

TAKE AWAY Current efforts intercept an estimated 0.1 percent of laundered money Compliance costs for financial institutions topped $274 billion in 2022 A more sophisticated approach will use the latest technologies   Money laundering needs to be combated effectively. Terrorists, illegal arms dealers, traffickers, drug cartels, corrupt politicians, kleptocratic regimes and all sorts of other […]

  The German government finds itself unable to endorse the Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive, a broad proposed EU regulation that would punish businesses for environmental and human rights violations in their supply chains. The Liberals within the governing coalition are withholding their support – a decision made on solid grounds. The directive mandates that […]

  Given the state of the world today, one could not be blamed for thinking that there are more pressing matters to worry about than some people’s inability to grasp the concept of compound interest. Inflation, economic uncertainty, heightened social friction and new technological (and possibly existential) threats like Artificial Intelligence all seem more urgent. […]