On this episode, George Mason Law’s Ilya Somin joins me and UVA Law students Joseph Camano (’24) and Dennis Ting (’24) to discuss the full implications of “My Body, My Choice.” Somin argues that the principle has implications that go far beyond abortion (including paying kidney donors, and abolishing the draft and mandatory jury service) and that both liberals and conservatives are inconsistent in their application.
ILYA SOMIN is Professor of Law at George Mason University and the B. Kenneth Simon Chair in Constitutional Studies at the Cato Institute. His research focuses on constitutional law, property law, democratic theory, federalism, and migration rights. He is the author of Free to Move: Foot Voting, Migration, and Political Freedom (Oxford University Press, 2020, revised and expanded edition, 2021), Democracy and Political Ignorance: Why Smaller Government is Smarter (Stanford University Press, revised and expanded second edition, 2016), and The Grasping Hand: Kelo v. City of New London and the Limits of Eminent Domain (University of Chicago Press, 2015, rev. paperback ed., 2016), co-author of A Conspiracy Against Obamacare: The Volokh Conspiracy and the Health Care Case (Palgrave Macmillan, 2013), and co-editor of Eminent Domain: A Comparative Perspective (Cambridge University Press, 2017). Democracy and Political Ignorance has been translated into Italian and Japanese.
Further Reading:
Ilya Somin bio, George Mason Law School
Ilya Somin, Democracy and Political Ignorance: Why Smaller Government is Smarter (Stanford University Press, revised and expanded second edition, 2016)
Ilya Somin, Free to Move: Foot Voting, Migration, and Political Freedom (Oxford University Press, 2020, revised and expanded edition, 2021)
Ilya Somin, A Broader Perspective on “My Body, My Choice”
Ilya Somin, Are Abortion Bans Takings?
Ilya Somin, Markets with Just a Few Limits
Ilya Somin, review of Cass Sunstein’s book Too Much Information:
https://reason.com/volokh/2020/10/16/two-important-new-books-on-knowledge-bias-and-paternalism/
Ilya Somin, “Warning About Government Warnings”:
Kim Krawiec, personal webpage https://kimberlydkrawiec.org and University of Virginia Law School webpage https://www.law.virginia.edu/faculty/profile/kdk4q/1181653
Krawiec, Kimberly D. “Markets, repugnance, and externalities.” Journal of Institutional Economics (2022): 1-12.
Healy, Kieran, and Kimberly D. Krawiec. “Repugnance management and transactions in the body.” American Economic Review 107.5 (2017): 86-90.
Krawiec, Kimberly D. “No Money Allowed.” U. Chi. Legal F.(2022): 221.
Cook, Philip J., and Kimberly D. Krawiec. “A primer on kidney transplantation: anatomy of the shortage.” Law & Contemp. Probs. 77 (2014): 1.
Cook, Philip J., and Kimberly D. Krawiec. “If We Allow Football Players and Boxers to Be Paid for Entertaining the Public, Why Don’t We Allow Kidney Donors to Be Paid for Saving Lives.” Law & Contemp. Probs. 81 (2018): 9.