The Concept of Liberty (Jurisprudential Analysis)

The significance of the study of the liberty in jurisprudence lies in the opportunities for lawyers, students, judges and even to the administration to bring theory and life into focus as it concerns human thought in relation to society. The concept of liberty recurs every day in law, its administration and adjudication. The students, judges, lawyers, legislatures and administrators have to understand the jurisprudential basis of the concept of liberty which is continuously being dealt with in the law in all its manifestations. Liberty is a word with many meanings. Every language in the world has a word for ‘liberty’, and it is mentioned in the constitution of several nations like in the United States: ‘To secure the blessings of liberty …’; ‘Life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness’; ‘Life, liberty and property’. In Indian constitution preamble, ‘liberty of thought, expression, belief, faith and worship’ word has been used. I shall simply assume that liberty can always be explained by a reference to three items-the person who are free, the restriction or limitation which they are free from and what it is that they are free to do or not to do, the general description of liberty, then, has the following form-this or that person (or persons) is free (or not free) from this or that constraint (or set of constraints) to do (or not to do) so and so. Liberty in connection with constitution and legal limitation is a certain structure of institutions, a certain system of public rules defining rights and duties. The material in this topic will provide various thoughts from original thinkers who have thrown light on the understanding and implementation of the concept of liberty.