Natural Rights

The laws of nature are immutable.

Jura naturae sunt immutabilia.

Source: Branch, Princ.; Bacon, Aph.; Weisman, 74c

Natural rights do not change with the times, with legislation, or with judicial doctrine. What was a right at the founding remains a right today.

Natural liberty is the power of acting as one thinks fit, without any restraint or control, unless by the law of nature.

Libertas naturalis est potestas agendi ut quis velit, absque ullo impedimento vel coactione, nisi lege naturae.

Source: 1 Bl. Comm. 125; Weisman, 47h

The only inherent restraint on natural liberty is the law of nature itself — not legislative enactment, not executive decree, not judicial construction.

Individual liberties are antecedent to all government.

Libertates individuales sunt ante omnem gubernationem.

Source: American constitutional maxim; Declaration of Independence (1776); state bills of rights; Weisman, 51i

Rights existed before government was instituted. Government was created to secure rights, not to grant them. What preceded government cannot be taken by government.

What is mine cannot be taken away without my consent.

Quod meum est sine me auferri non potest.

Source: Bouvier, Max.

Property is a natural right — no government, corporation, or individual may deprive a man of what is his except by his own voluntary act or by due process of law.

Everyone is the manager and disposer of his own affairs.

Rerum suarum quilibet est moderator et arbiter.

Source: Co. Litt. 223a; Bouvier, Max.

Every man has the natural right to direct his own affairs, order his own household, and dispose of his own property — no authority may usurp this right without due process of law.