"Freedom and the Law", first published in 1961, is the most important book written by Italian jurist and philosopher Bruno Leoni. The greatest obstacle to rule of law in our time, contends the author of this thought-provoking work, is the problem of overlegislation. In modern democratic societies, legislative bodies are increasingly usurping functions that were and should be exercised by individuals or groups rather than government. The result is an unwieldy surfeit of laws and regulations that by their sheer volume stifle individual freedom. Leoni explains the features of law under freedom and show how the lawmakers themselves end up undermining those features such as stability, universality, and non-arbitrariness. He sees the greatest threat to the old liberal notion of the rule of law as the state itself.