Wednesday, March 14, 2012

Liberty, Part XLV

Make no mistake -- this is not from the Constitution, and it was not an influence on the Constitution, but for the past couple of months, I have been offering ideas of liberty from a number of sources, and the following from France's Declaration of the Rights of Man happens to be excellent:

"1. Men are born and remain free and equal in rights. Social distinctions may be founded only upon the general good.

"2. The aim of all political association is the preservation of the natural and imprescriptible rights of man. These rights are liberty, property, security, and resistance to oppression.

"3. The principle of all sovereignty resides essentially in the nation. No body nor individual may exercise any authority which does not proceed directly from the nation.

"4. Liberty consists in the freedom to do everything which injures no one else; hence the exercise of the natural rights of each man has no limits except those which assure to the other members of the society the enjoyment of the same rights. These limits can only be determined by law.

"5. Law can only prohibit such actions as are hurtful to society. Nothing may be prevented which is not forbidden by law, and no one may be forced to do anything not provided for by law."

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