LIBERTY (Lat. Liber, free; Ubertas, free dom, liberty). Freedom from restraint The faculty of willing, and the power of doing what has been willed, without influ ence from without A privilege held by grant or prescription, by vvhich, some men enjoy greater privileges than ordinary subjects.
The place within which certain privileges or immunities are enjoyed, or jurisdiction is exercised, as the liberties of a city. See FREEDOM OF THE CITY.
Liberty, "on its positive side, denotes the fullness of individual existence ; on its nega tive side it denotes the necessary restraint on all, which is needed to promote the great est possible amount of liberty for each." Amos, Science of Law p. 90.
Civil liberty is the greatest amount of ab solute liberty which can • in the nature of things be equally possessed by every citizen in a state.
The right to do everything permitted by the laws. Ordr. Const. Leg. 37.
The term is frequently used to denote the amount of absolute liberty which - is actually enjoyed by the various citizens un der the government and laws of the state as administered. 1 Bla. Com, 125.
The fullest political liberty furnishes the best posiible guarantee for civil liberty.
Lieber defines civil liberty as guaranteed protection against interference with the in terests and rights held dear and important by large classes of civilized men, or by all the members of a state, together with an ef fectual share in the making and administra tion of the laws, as the best apparatug to secure that protection, including Blackstdne's divisions of •civil and political under this head.
Under the Roman law, civil liberty was the affirmance of a general restraint, while in our law it is the negation of a general restraint ; Ordr. Const. Leg.
Natural Liberty Is the right which nature gives to all mankind of disposing of their persons and property after the manner they Judge most consistent with their happiness, on condition of their acting within the limits of the law of nature and so as not to inter fere with an equal exercise of the same rights by other men. Burlam. c. 3, § 15; 1 Bla. Cora. 125. It is called by Lieber social liberty, and is defined as the protection or unrestrained action in as high a degree as the same claim of protection of each indi vidual admits of.
Personal liberty consists in the power of locomotion, of changing situation, of remov ing one's person to whatever place one's inclination may direct, without imprisonment or restraint unless by due course of • law.. 1 Bla. Com. 134 ; Hare, Const. L. 777.
Political liberty is an effectual share in the making and administration of the laws. Lieber, Civ. Lib.
Liberty, in its widest sense, means the faculty of Willing, and the power of doing what has been willed without influence from without. It means self-de termination, unrestrainedness of action. Thus de fined, one being only can be free,— to spheres of human action, the term receives a relative meaning, because the power of man le lim ited; he is subject to constant influences from Without. If the idea of uniestrainedness of action Is applied to the social state of man, It receives a lim itation still greater, since the equal claims of unre strained action of all necessarily involves the idea of protection against 'interference by others. We thus come to the definition, that liberty of eoclsl man consists In the protection of unrestrained action in as high a degree as the same claim of protection of each individual admits of, or In the most effi cient protection of his rights, claims, interests, as man' or cittzen, or of his humanity, manifested as a social being. (See RIGHT.) The word liberty, ap plied to men in their political state, may be viewed with reference to the state as a whole, and in this case means the independence of the state, of other states (see Auxoxomx) ; or it may have reference to the relation of the citizen to the government, in which case it is called political or civil liberty ; or it may have reference to the status of a man as a political being, contradietinguished from him who is not considered master over his own body, will, or labor—the slave. This le called personal liberty, which, as a matter of course, includes freedom from prison.