Tom G. Palmer
Vice President for International Programs, Director of the Center for the Promotion of Human Rights
Tom G. Palmer is Vice President for International Programs at the Cato Institute, director of the Center for Promotion of Human Rights, a Senior Fellow of the Institute, and director of Cato University, the Institute's educational arm. He was very active in the late 1980s and the early 1990s in the spread of classical liberal ideas in the Soviet bloc states and their successors and continues to be active throughout the region through his work with www.cato.ru, the Cato Institute's Russian-language program, and with the Institute's European programs. He also established and supervises Cato's programs in Arabic, Persian, Kurdish, Azeri, Portuguese, Chinese, and throughout Africa. Before joining Cato he was an H. B. Earhart Fellow at Hertford College, Oxford University, and a vice president of the Institute for Humane Studies at George Mason University. He frequently lectures in North America, Europe, Eurasia, Africa, Latin America, China, and the Middle East on political science, public choice, civil society, and the moral, legal, and historical foundations of individual rights. He has published reviews and articles on politics and morality in scholarly journals such as the Harvard Journal of Law and Public Policy, Ethics, Critical Review, and Constitutional Political Economy, as well as in publications such as Slate, the Wall Street Journal, the New York Times, the Washington Post, and The Spectator of London. He received his B.A. in liberal arts from St. Johns College in Annapolis, Maryland, his M.A. in philosophy from The Catholic University of America, Washington, D.C., and his Ph.D. in politics from Oxford University.
Media Contact: 202-789-5200
To Book a Speaking Engagement: 202-789-5226
E-Mail: tpalmer@cato.org
Books and Book Chapters
"No Exit: Framing the Problem of Justice" in Ordered Anarchy: Jasay and His Surroundings, ed. by Hartmut Kliemt and Hardy Bouillon (London: Ashgate, 2008).
"Are Patents and Copyrights Morally Justified?" in Copy Fights: The Future of Intellectual Property in the Information Age, ed by Adam Thierer and Clyde Wayne Crews Jr. (Washington, D.C.: Cato Institute, 2002).
"Madison and Multiculturalism: Group Representation, Group Rights, and Constitutionalism," in James Madison and the Future of Limited Government, ed by John Samples (Washington, D.C.: Cato Institute, 2002)
"Classical Liberalism and Civil Society: Definitions, History, and Relations," in Civil Society and Government, ed. by Nancy Rosenblum and Robert Post (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2002).
"Saving Rights Theory from Its Friends," in Individual Rights Reconsidered, ed. by Tibor R. Machan (Stanford: Hoover Press, 2001).
Cato Studies
"Lessons of Election 2000," by John Samples, Tom G. Palmer and Patrick Basham, Briefing Paper no. 59, January 2, 2001.
Articles and Newsletters
"Democracy and the Contest for Liberty," Northwestern University Law Review, Vol. 102, No. 1 (2008).
Opinion and Commentary
"Getting Kareem Freed," National Review, March 29, 2007
"Open Societies, Global Markets, and the Bourgeois Virtues," Cato.org, March 29, 2007
"The 'Crime' of Blogging In Egypt," by Raja M. Kamal and Tom G. Palmer, The Washington Post, February 21, 2007
"Freedom for an Egyptian Blogger and Freethinker," by Tom G. Palmer and Raja M. Kamal, Daily Star, February 20, 2007
"The Egyptian Judiciary Blazing the Path to Democracy and Economic Development," Al-Ghad, May 29, 2006
Legal Briefs
Shelly Parker, Dick Anthony Heller, Tom G. Palmer, Gillian St. Lawrence, Tracey Ambeau and George Lyon v. District of Columbia and Anthony Williams, March 1, 2004 (PDF, 0 B)
Events
"What Should Be a Culture of Enterprise in an Age of Globalization?," March 29, 2007 [Conference]
"Freedom, Commerce and Peace: A Regional Agenda," October 25, 2006 [Conference]
"Building Foundations for Freedom, Commerce, and Peace in the Middle East," May 4, 2006 [Capitol Hill Briefing]
"Cato Institute Perspectives 2006," April 27, 2006 [City Seminar]
Speeches and Testimony
"Freedom Properly Understood." An address presented before the Liberal Thinkers' Conference "The Future of Freedom," Hamburg, Saturday, 17 November 2007.
"The Role of Institutions and Law in Economic Development." Prepared for "A Liberal Agenda for the New Century: A Global Perspective," a Conference cosponsored by the Cato Institute, the Institute of Economic Analysis and the Russian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs, April 8-9, 2004, Moscow, Russian Federation.
Presentations
Byrne Project Report: Freedom and Jihad [PDF | Powerpoint]
Constitutional Democracy and the New Iraq (English) [PDF | Powerpoint]
Constitutional Democracy and the New Iraq (Arabic) [PDF | Powerpoint]
Multimedia
Tom G. Palmer discusses DC v. Heller on Western Standard Radio. (July 2, 2008) [MP3]
Tom G. Palmer and Robert A. Levy on C-SPAN on the DC gun ban case March 18, 2008 [Flash Video, 02:35]
Tom G. Palmer talks about the DC gun ban on Reporter's Roundtable March 14, 2008 [Flash Video, 18:01]
Tom G. Palmer talks to the Washington Post about the DC gun ban. (March 12, 2008) [MP3]
"One Year in Jail for Kareem" featuring Tom G. Palmer, November 9, 2007 [Flash Audio, 05:42]