REJOINDER TO KINSELLA ON OWNERSHIP AND THE VOLUNTARY SLAVE CONTRACT

Kinsella (2022) separates selling from ownership. He denies the claim that if you can't sell it, you don't (fully) own it. He rejects the notion that if you fully own it, you can sell it. He also rejects voluntary slavery and specific performance contracts. The present paper is an attempt to defend both claims. Does this debate between Kinsella and me have any practical consequences? Certainly not vis a vis the voluntary slave issue. That can only have theoretical implications for the establishment and refinement of libertarian theory. But the specific performance issue does have some. Suppose a doctor, during a surgical operation, decides to walk out of the operating room right in the midst of this procedure, leaving the patient to die. Can he or can he not be compelled, with the full force of the law, to get back on the job? Or may a guard forcibly prevent the quit right at the moment of danger? These are some of the issues explored in the present paper.