Private Law Theory

The ‘twin ideas’, as Hayek (1967a: 77; 1973: 23) calls them, of spontaneous social order and cultural evolution (Vanberg [1986] 1994) are at the core of his social thought, and they are closely connected with a theme that runs through his entire work: namely, the knowledge problem (Vanberg 2017). A spontaneous social order, paradigmatically exemplified by the order of the market, is an order that results, without any central direction, from the mutual adaption of individual agents who pursue their own, separate, interests within the limits of general rules of conduct …

Viktor J Vanberg, Spontaneous Order, Evolution and Common Law: Some Notes on FA Hayek’s System of Social Thought, Freiburg Discussion papers on Constitutional Economics, 24/4 (2024).