The Art of Good Government

The search for the "ultimate rightness" in law has occupied the minds of political thinkers for centuries, yet the answer is not hard to find when the fundamental nature of political conflict is clearly and fully understood.

In our everyday lives, in personal relationships, in our use of natural resources, in our business and commercial affairs, it is possible for some to gain benefit at the expense of others, to impose their own wishes and interests upon others, to enrich themselves by impoverishing others.

As long as government permits imposition to continue, or as long as government itself creates it, we will not live in peace and justice, nor will our prosperity reach its full potential. Good Government is governance which prevents us from harming or exploiting or imposing upon one another.

The idea is well summarized by one of the leading figures in British justice, Lord Denning, in his book The Family Story: "Each man should be free to develop his own personality to the full; the only restrictions upon this freedom should be those which are necessary to enable everyone else to do the same."

Likewise clearly and concisely in the words of Thomas Jefferson: "the purpose of government is to prevent men from injuring one another".

The Art of Good Government requires the acceptance and consistent application of one simple basic rule: Do No Harm. This is the Principle of Non-Injury.

Governance based on the Principle of Non-Injury precludes people from robbing, killing, cheating, exploiting and oppressing one another, opening the way to collaboration, peace and prosperity.