Liberty rights

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In addition to equality , procedural and participation rights, civil liberties form a category of fundamental rights .

In order for a state to be recognized under international law , it must exercise state authority over its people on its territory . However, this power of the state is in contrast to the freedom of the individual . To prevent proliferation of state power, are in constitutional states the rights of intervention of the state is limited. This is done by granting people subjective rights . These primarily serve to defend against government action in order to be able to make optimal use of freedoms such as life , personal freedom or property .

In connection with the fight against terrorism , the relationship between individual freedoms and internal security is a particular topic of public discussion in the 21st century .

Historically important developments

England

With the Magna Carta in 1215 the English nobility were given certain rights and recorded in writing. This is considered an important step in the development of freedom rights. The fact that only the nobles could invoke these rights changed with the Petition of Rights of 1628. In this the English Parliament demanded the observance of rights against all Englishmen.

With the Glorious Revolution and the passage of the Bill of Rights , citizens were given the freedom to carry arms.

America

The idea of ​​civil rights was taken up early in America. The General Fundamentals of 1685 gave citizens the right to life, limb, a good name and property.

With the Virginia Declaration of Rights , citizens were given special rights. Article 1 (equality and freedom of all citizens), Article 12 (freedom of the press) and Article 16 (freedom of religion) are particularly important for rights of freedom.

With the Bill of Rights of 1789, after ratification in 1791, citizens were granted freedom of expression, freedom of religion, freedom of the press, freedom of assembly and the right to carry arms.

France

As a result of the French Revolution , on August 26, 1789, the human and civil rights were declared . This declaration saw all people as equal and free (Art. 1). Inviolable human rights were also established:

  • the right to freedom,
  • the right to property,
  • the right to security
  • and the right to resist oppression (Art. 2).

This freedom may be exercised as long as it does not harm anyone else (Art. 4). In addition, freedom of religion (Art. 10), freedom of expression (Art. 11) and property (Art. 17) are protected as special rights.

Germany

In Germany, the idea of ​​freedom rights played an important role in the German Peasants' War , which is expressed in the 10 Memmingen Articles and the Twelve Articles of Memmingen . These demands related to large parts of today's Germany. However, the articles that were widespread in the Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation were only used by a few landlords .

The first attempt at an all-German catalog of freedoms were the basic rights of the German people in the Paulskirchenverfassungs of 1848. These included the freedom of the person and the spirit, intellectual and religious freedom as well as the freedom of property.

The Bismarckian constitution of 1871 contained no fundamental rights or liberties. The reason for this was that such rights were regulated in the constitutions of the federal states and in special laws.

The Weimar Constitution of 1919 contained the first valid all-German freedom rights. It contained the prohibition of restrictions on personal freedom, the inviolability of the home, the secrecy of letters, post, telegraph and telephone, freedom of expression and press, freedom of assembly, the Freedom of association and the right to property are established. After the Reichstag fire in February 1933, the Reich President's decree for the protection of the people and the state of February 28, 1933 "temporarily" suspended all basic rights, which was the basis of the National Socialist tyranny until 1945.

In order to make clear the special weight of the basic and freedom rights for the free-democratic basic order , these rights were placed at the beginning of the Basic Law for the Federal Republic of Germany . Freedom rights apply in certain areas of life that are described either action-related (e.g. “gathering” according to Article 8, Paragraph 1 of the Basic Law) or factual (e.g., “art” according to Article 5, Paragraph 3 of the Basic Law). Primarily, they establish freedom of action in the respective area of ​​life, which can be used actively as well as passively (action, omission). Secondly, they guarantee subjective rights, primarily in the form of defensive rights against state interference.

According to this, important freedoms are:

Austria and Switzerland

Both the Austrian Federal Constitution and the Swiss Federal Constitution contain rights comparable to the German Basic Law .

International right

December 10th as the day the Universal Declaration of Human Rights was proclaimed in 1948 is celebrated every year as International Human Rights Day.

The ratification of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) of 1950 is a condition for membership in the Council of Europe .

literature

  • Josef Isensee , Paul Kirchhof (ed.): Handbook of the Constitutional Law of the Federal Republic of Germany, Volume VI: Freedom Rights , 2nd edition, 2001
  • Andreas von Arnauld: The rights of freedom and their barriers , Nomos, 1999. ISBN 978-3-7890-5999-5
  • Johannes Hellermann: The so-called negative side of freedom rights , writings on public law, Volume 645, Berlin 1993

Web links

Wiktionary: Freedom right  - explanations of meanings, word origins, synonyms, translations

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Christoph Gusy: Freedom rights as subjective rights ZJS 2008, p. 233 ff.
  2. ↑ Wolfgang Kaleck: From the return of the secret process Die Zeit, August 13, 2015
  3. ^ The General Fundamentals of the Plymouth Colony Web site of the Library of Congress
  4. ↑ RGBl.  I p. 83