Toward a Libertarian Theory of Inalienability

Walter Block’s 2003 essay is the standing libertarian case against inalienability. Reasoning straight from self-ownership — if you truly own a thing you may sell it — Block defends “full” alienability and concludes that a genuinely voluntary slave contract is a valid, enforceable title transfer, not a mere promise.

What the Article Argues

Walter Block places himself at the radical “everything is alienable” pole, against the mainstream libertarian view — held, on his account, by Rothbard, Randy Barnett, George Smith, Stephan Kinsella, David Gordon, and Richard Epstein — that some things, notably the will, cannot be sold even voluntarily. His argument runs directly from ownership: “if I own something, I can sell it (and should be allowed by law to do so). If I can’t sell it, then, and to that extent, I really don’t own it.” From this he reaches his thesis — “No law should be enacted prohibiting or even limiting in any way people’s rights to alienate those things they own,” which he calls “full monte” alienability — and embraces the conclusion most libertarians treat as a reductio: “the thesis that voluntary slavery is compatible with libertarianism.” He concedes the position is “not well accepted by libertarians” and notes that, to his knowledge, only Robert Nozick had previously supported it. The body of the article works through the standard objections — the master who immediately demands his purchase price back, the supposed unsaleability of moral or legal responsibility — and argues that none defeats the validity of a freely made slave contract.

Why It Matters in This Wiki

This is the loyal opposition on contract theory. The wiki’s account of contract follows Rothbard’s title-transfer and inalienability line, on which the will is inalienable in fact and so a slavery clause transfers no title and cannot bind. Block denies exactly that premise. The essay is therefore the dissenting voice in Voluntary Slavery, Debt, and the Title-Transfer Theory of Contract, included so that the question is presented as a live disagreement rather than a settled one.

See Also

• Walter Block - the author
• Voluntary Slavery, Debt, and the Title-Transfer Theory of Contract - the concept node this essay supplies the dissent for
• The Ethics of Liberty - Rothbard’s text, whose inalienability argument this essay critiques
• Murray N. Rothbard - the principal author Block argues against
• Nonaggression and Property Rights - the self-ownership premise both sides share
• The Title-Transfer Theory of Contract - Rothbard’s (after Evers) theory: a contract is a transfer of title to alienable property, enforceable only when breach is an implicit theft

Sources

• Toward a Libertarian Theory of Inalienability (JLS 17:2, 2003) - Block’s full-text critique defending full alienability and the validity of a genuinely voluntary slave contract