Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Bill of Rights
Bill of Rights
Bill of Rights
BILL OF RIGHTS
Bill of Rights:
defined as a declaration and enumeration of a person’s rights and privileges which the
Constitution is designed to protect against violation by the government or any individual
or groups of individual.
It is a charter of liberties for the individual and a limitation upon the power of the State.
Its basis is the social importance accorded to the individual in democratic or republican
state, the belief that every human being has intrinsic dignity and worth which must be
respected and safeguard.
Classes of Rights
1. Natural Rights: They are those rights possessed by every citizen without being granted
by the State for they are given to man by God as a human being created to His image so
that he may live a happy life. [examples are the right to life and the right to love.]
2. Constitutional Rights: They are those rights which are conferred and protected by the
Constitution. Since they are part of fundamental law, they cannot be modified or taken
away by law making-body.
3. Statutory Rights: They are those rights which are provided by laws promulgated by the
law-making body and consequently, may be abolished by the same body. [examples are
the right to receive a minimum wage and the right to adopt a child by an unrelated
person]
2. Conflict between individual rights and group welfare. The individual must yield to
the group; and in other cases, the group to the individual. It is for this reason that the
Constitution creates a domain of individual rights and liberties, which is protected
from encroachments whether by individuals or group of individuals, and even by the
government itself. For the same reason, the Constitution provides, expressly or
impliedly, that in certain cases, when demanded by the necessity of promoting the
general welfare of society, the government may interfere with these rights and
liberties.
3. Role of Judiciary. How far, consistently with freedom, may the rights and liberties of
the individual be subordinated in the will of the government is a question which has
assailed the very existence of governments from the beginning of time. The effective
balancing of the claims of the individual and those of the community is the essence or
the indispensable means for the attainment of the legitimate aspirations of any
democratic society. There can be no absolute power whoever exercises it, for that
would be tyranny, yet there can neither be absolute liberty for that would mean
license and anarchy.
On the judiciary, in appropriate cases, rest primarily this all-important duty of
balancing the interests of the individual and group welfare in adjudication of disputes
that it is fair and just to the parties involved and beneficial to the larger interest of the
community or the people as a whole. In the exercise of the power of judicial review,
courts, ultimately the supreme court, act as arbiters of the limits of governmental
power especially in relation to individual rights.