Liberty is a concept of political philosophy which describes an individual’s right to act according to his or her own will, free from outside compulsion or coercion.
One of the earliest usages of the word freedom can be found in the legal code of Lagash, a Sumerian city-state whose king Urukagina established laws that forbade compelling the sale of property and required that charges be stated before any man accused of a crime could be tried or punished. The Code of Hammurabi also prohibited compulsion in economic matters, and regarded murder, whether done by rich or poor, as a criminal offense. In the Persian Empire, equal rights were afforded to citizens of all religions and ethnic groups, as well as to women.
The notion of civil liberties can fairly be dated back to Socrates, the first notable proponent of free speech. Socrates roamed the marketplace and other centers of debate in Athens, mocking the Greek gods as silly and immoral and seeking to lay bare the ignorance of political...
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
References
Griswold v. Connecticut, 381 US 479 (1965)
Westbrooks LH (2008) Personal freedom. In: Owens W (eds) Freedom: keys to freedom from twenty-one national leaders. Main Street Publications, Memphis, pp 133–138
Mill JS (1859) On liberty. Clarendon, Oxford
Owens J (1998) Socrates, freedom of speech and hate crime
Robertson AH, Merrills JG (1996) Human rights in the world. Manchester University Press, Manchester
Stephen JF (1874) Liberty, equality, fraternity. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2011 Springer Science+Business Media B.V.
About this entry
Cite this entry
Lasson, K. (2011). Liberties. In: Chatterjee, D.K. (eds) Encyclopedia of Global Justice. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4020-9160-5_317
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4020-9160-5_317
Publisher Name: Springer, Dordrecht
Print ISBN: 978-1-4020-9159-9
Online ISBN: 978-1-4020-9160-5
eBook Packages: Humanities, Social Sciences and Law