The Routledge Handbook of Classical Liberalism provides a comprehensive analysis of classical liberal theory including a survey of the theory’s central ideas and arguments, and the application of these ideas to contemporary issues.

Chapters providing theoretical analyses are interweaved with coverage of wide-ranging, concrete applications such as public health and healthcare, technology, policing, taxation and wealth, constitutional structures, and more. Across these areas, the handbook demonstrates how classical liberalism provides a unified approach over a divergent set of problems, providing a statement of modern classical liberalism serving as a research tool for a wide variety of individuals across the ideological spectrum. Classical liberalism is a systematic effort to ensure that the existence of the state does not abridge the fundamental rights and liberties of individuals, especially including property and contract rights. It holds that laws must satisfy the criteria of the Rule of Law so that stable relations between the individual and the state may develop.

The Routledge Handbook of Classical Liberalism is an authoritative and key reference text for students, academics and researchers engaged in the study of political ideologies, political science, political economy, economics, law, social policy, and related fields.