Dominiak Łukasz, Proceeds of Crime, Punishment, and Libertarianism

It is commonly believed that gains made in connection with crime should be forfeited from their beneficiaries. But would such disgorgement be consistent with the libertar-ian ethics? Recently, one of the most prominent libertarian scholars, professor Walter Block, took up the question of whether indirect proceeds of crime should be held by their beneficiaries under libertarianism. In favour of the thesis that disgorgement of assets acquired indirectly from crime is incompatible with the libertarian ethics, Block argued, inter alia, that, since the libertarian principle of horizontal proportionality commands equal punishment for equal crimes, additional seizure of assets acquired indirectly from some of such crimes would conflict with this principle and therefore be unjust. In support of his main argument, Block deployed a series of ingenious thought experiments that were supposed to both pump the intuition that indirect proceeds of crime should be kept by the criminals and...