The idea of natural order, in effect, masks the state's role.... Robert Hale... demonstrated the extent to which the distribution of income and wealth is the product of legal rules we choose to impose. Hale trained our attention on the foundational rules of property and contract law, showing how free, voluntary, compensated exchange is in fact a product of the legal coercion that the government establishes through its role in defining property rights.

p. 32 - The Illusion of Free Markets: Punishment and the Myth of Natural Order (2011)