PHL271H1 Lecture Notes - Lecture 5: Negative Liberty, Fundamental Justice, Positive Liberty
Document Summary
Liberty and equality: two fundamental values for democracies. There are some philosophical questions about liberty, as well as legal questions. We have the charter of rights and freedoms, which contains explicit rights to liberty, and a number of fundamental freedoms and a very general right to life, liberty, and security of the person. However, it doesn"t exactly say what this means; i. e. what laws are included in this general right. Courts are tasked with interpreting the charter, and they work out in detail what sort of liberties are protected under this right. When properly understood, liberty and equality do not con ict, according to dworkin. Dworkin thinks that these values go together and they do not stand in tension. Isaiah berlin thought that the two stood in irreducible tensions. Relevant law: canadian charter of rights and freedoms. There has to be a pressing objective for that right to have been violated.
