right to liberty
1
5.0
- noun
- Formal
:
derecho a la libertad
- Many believe that everyone should enjoy the right to liberty without fear of unjust imprisonment.
- a basic right to liberty
- the general right to liberty
- right to liberty and security
Examples
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Criminal law is not compatible with such a general right to liberty.
Academic text (2005) -
Instead, the right to liberty is subject to exceptions, one of which is the demands of just punishment.
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Can there be a general right to liberty?
Academic text (2005) -
With respect to a right to liberty, things are more complicated.
Academic text (2005) -
The original Constitution was a noble but incomplete attempt to secure the equal right to liberty for all.
Academic text (2002) -
Democracy is not about elections and consent, nor is it about securing the right to liberty.
Academic text (2002) -
All American citizens possessed pre-political rights, including an unalienable right to liberty.
Academic text (1998) -
However, the phenomenon of detention was not the sole manifestation of the violation of the right to liberty and security of person.
Academic text (1990) -
Unlike the derived right, the basic right to liberty secures an immunity against legal coercion for actions themselves.
Academic text (2005) -
There is nothing wrong with this balancing calculus yielding, in some sense, a basic right to liberty.
Academic text (2005)
Synonyms
∞
1.0
The right to act, speak, or think as you want without being stopped
53
6.7
The right of a region or group to run its own government
10
3.5
The right to choose what to think and do without unfair control by others
9
3.2
The freedom to act, speak, or think without unnecessary restriction
Antonyms
- Formal
1
8.6
A situation where people cannot make their own choices because others control them
How Protected
Surface Forms
Morphology
The phrase's meaning is directly compositional: 'right' (an entitlement) + 'to' (marks the relationship) + 'liberty' (freedom) yields the entitlement to freedom. This is a common, literal legal/ethical construction found across languages and should be immediately understandable to a B1 learner who knows the constituent words.
Etymology
Right to liberty comes from the image of someone having their chains removed after a judge gives them a paper that lets them go free. The word right is like a 'legal claim' and liberty means 'to be free', so the phrase means the legal or moral claim to personal freedom.