Professor Hasnas Wins Bastiat Prize for Journalism

Award Recognizes Writers Who Explain, Promote, and Defend Free Society

John Hasnas, an associate professor at Georgetown’s McDonough School of Business, was awarded the eighth annual Bastiat Prize for Journalism for his op-ed “The ‘Unseen’ Deserve Empathy, Too,” published by The Wall Street Journal on May 29, 2009.

In the article, Hasnas used Frederic Bastiat’s analysis in “what is seen and what is not seen” to explain why judges should base their decisions on the rule of law, not on their “compassion” and “empathy” toward plaintiffs or defendants, which was debated after President Obama appointed Sonia Sotomayor to the Supreme Court.

As the recipient of the award, Hasnas was presented with $10,000 and a crystal candlestick. At the event, Hasnas said, “In 1850, Frederic Bastiat stated a simple, important economic truth. In my article, I repeated and applied that in a legal context. Receiving the Bastiat Prize makes me appreciate that an important function of journalism is to preserve truths of the past and remind us in the present when they are needed.”

Claude Frederic Bastiat was a French economist, legislator, and writer who championed private property, free markets, and limited government. The Bastiat Prize was founded in 2001 by International Policy Network and recognizes writers who wittily and eloquently explain, promote, and defend the principles of the free society.

Hasnas, who holds both a Ph.D. and a J.D., teaches courses on business law and ethics at Georgetown’s McDonough School of Business.