Liberty - Definition - Law Dictionary Home Dictionary Definition liberty

Definition :

Liberty, a franchise, being a royal privilege or a branch there of, subsisting in the hands of a subject, as a liberty to hold pleas in a Court of one's own.

The privileged districts, called liberties from being exempt from the sheriff jurisdiction, having separate commissions of the peace, and not being incorporated boroughs, might, by Order in Council, be united with the counties in which they were situate upon petition of the justices of the liberty or of the Courts, under the (English) Liberties Act, 1850 (13 & 14 Vict. c. 105), of which statute, it is believed, but little advantage was taken. As to election of a 'people's magistrate,' in 1891, by the tenants and inhabitants of the liberty of Havering-atte-Bower, in Essex, see Law Journal for July 11, 1891.

By s. 48, sub-s. 1, of the Municipal Corporations Act, 1888, every liberty and franchise of a county forms for the purpose of that Act part of the county of which it forms part for the purposes of parliamentary elections.

--liberty is the most cherished possession of a man. Liberty is the right of doing an act which the law permits, Kartar Singh v. State of Punjab, (1994) 3 SCC 569 (757). The preamble of our constitution lays its resolve to assure to all its citizens liberty of thought, expression, belief, faith and worship (Constitution of India, Preamble).

Liberty, before a person is deprived of his personal liberty or his life, procedure established by law must be strictly followed and must not be departed from to the disadvantage of the person affected, Commentary on the Constitution of India Durga Das Basu, Art. 21, Vol. 2, p. 76.

Liberty, in U.K. the courts and the House are zealous to uphold the liberty of its subjects; however, that liberty is controlled and confined by law, Liverside v. Anderson, (1942) AC 206.

It is something which results from a permission given to or something enjoyed under sufferance by a particular person or body of persons as opposed to enjoyment by all and sundry, Stroud's Judicial Dictionary, Vol. 2, p. 1459.

It is the right not only or freedom from servitude, imprisonment or restraint, but the right of one to use his faculties in all lawful ways, to live and work where he will, to earn his livelihood in any lawful calling, and to pursue any lawful trade or avocation, A Dictionary of Law, Willium C. Anderson, 1889, p. 614.

--personal liberty of all persons are protected. Constitution of India, Art. 21. See also Procedure Established by Law.