While in law school in Louisiana (the only civil law state in the US), I was

introduced to the Roman and civil law and also to contract law and theory.

It was during my first-year contracts class, in 1988, that I conceived of my

“estoppel” based theory of rights. I also became interested in the Rothbard-Evers

title-transfer theory of contract. I presented a paper on this topic in 1999,

integrating the views of Rothbard and Evers with various concepts from the

civil law and the common law. I later published an article on this in the

Journal of Libertarian Studies, upon which this chapter is based.