Friedrich A. Hayek essay contest 2006

Friedrich A. Hayek, Nobel Prize in Economy

As part of their activities, the Mont Pelerin Society organizes an essay contest as a tribute to it´s founder, Friedrich A. Hayek.

Since the Francisco Marroquín University will be the host of the general reunion that will be celebrated in Guatemala, on november 2006, the MPS executive comittee organized a spanish essay contest.  It is an open invitation for all students and faculty members 35 years of age or younger.

The essay´s subject is «From the first establishment of (trade) which served reciprocal but not common purposes, a process has been going on for millennia which, by making rules of conduct independent of the particular purposes of those concerned, made it possible to extend these rules to ever wider circles of undetermined persons and eventually might make possible a universal peaceful order of the world.»

The idea that the rules of conduct pertaining to trade are independent of both particular and common purposes leads one to reflect on how and under what conditions a universal peaceful order of the world might, one day, be achieved. Hayek here extends the more intuitive view of the classical liberals, who also believed that trade encouraged peaceful, civilized behaviour, but did not deepen their reflection, leaving current generations to discard the idea as being naive. However, Hayek did not pursue this topic, leaving it to the current generation of younger scholars to explore (for his reasons, see The Constitution of Liberty, p. 263).

There is more information about the essay contest, here (
PDF).  The participants, as the current generation of younger scholars, are to respond to Hayeks statement.

The first prize, for the contest winner wil be US00, plus traveling expenses to the general reunion celebrated in Guatemala City.  The second prize is US00; and the third US00.  The essays are due on June 15th 2006.