ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses some of the normative problems that pertain to the issue of government regulation of business. It describes the violation of the prohibition of prior restraint. Throughout the several decades economists have amassed evidence about the effects of government regulation of people’s economic affairs. The general consensus among scholars is that, by the standard economic measure of cost and benefit, the government’s regulatory policies and actions have failed. Deregulation of the economic system is a species of the kind of change that will accomplish bringing the legal system into accord with the crucial normative principles at issue; ergo, deregulation should be pursued. If the constitution or legal code of a just human community should prohibit statutes abridging freedom of speech or contract or trade, any legislation or related procedure that has in fact established such statutes must be construed as undue.
