Crossing Borders, Breaking Borders

A discussion of Ilya Somin's Free to Move and Timothy William Waters's Boxing Pandora

Thursday, September 17, noon EDT

For all the expansion of freedom in modern times, most countries' borders have remained fixed and rigid. And although capital and goods flow relatively freely, human beings' ability to move between countries or change their citizenship is severely limited. Two new books critically examine these limits, and propose changes. Ilya Somin’s book Free to Move: Foot Voting, Migration, and Political Freedom (Oxford University Press 2020) argues for wide-ranging expansion of people’s ability to “vote with their feet” both domestically and across international boundaries. Timothy William Waters's book Boxing Pandora: Rethinking Borders, States, and Secession in a Democratic World (Yale University Press 2020) argues for a radical rethink of the conventional opposition to secession: Is secession dangerous and destabilizing, or a pathway to stability and greater justice for divided societies? Professor Sanford V Levinson, University of Texas at Austin School of Law, will comment on both books.