How Does the Rule of Law Protect a Person’s Right to Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness?

by Lisa Mengzhu Xu 

April 2010

In the Declaration of Independence, Thomas Jefferson wrote of man's "inalienable Rights"—Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness. Eleven years later, in the United States Constitution, the founding fathers established a fundamental principle—the Rule of Law—which would protect those "inalienable Rights" and which has become the cornerstone of our government today.

While crafting the American governmental system, the founding fathers' chief concern was to limit the power of government. The founding fathers had seen the corruption and abuse of power in European governments. They came to America and declared their sovereignty from Great Britain so that they could establish a new, revolutionary form of government—one that was based on the ideals of the Enlightenment, one that would eliminate the problems that European governments faced. And so, the founding fathers created a document—the Constitution—which in turn created a government based on two concepts: separation of powers and checks and balances. The Constitution established three branches of government, each with its own distinct powers (for the most part), and each having the ability to place "checks" on the powers of another. Furthermore, the American government came to be one of federalism, whereby national, state, and local levels of government struggle with each other for power.

Inherent in our government is the fact that no single individual or group can hold ultimate power; Because of this distribution of power among institutions of government, each citizen has more opportunity to effect change in the law or in society. For example, a defendant convicted of a crime in a lower court has the ability to appeal the decision many times in higher courts, all the way up to the Supreme Court of the United States (if the case is compelling enough). The defendant has this power because the court system in the United States reflects the separation of powers (each court has specific jurisdiction) and federalism (different levels of courts) that is evident throughout the rest of the government. Therefore, governmental institutions are weakened in order to empower the individual, and the empowered individual has the ability to enjoy his or her "inalienable Rights."

Individuals are also empowered by their privilege to elect (most) government officials, since the United States is a republic, or as James Madison called it, a representative democracy." Because citizens can choose—to some extent—who represents them in government, citizens can "pursue Happiness" by choosing—again, the some extent—what decisions the government will make.

Thus, the Constitution limits the power of the government by outlining a government based on compromise and conflict, on separation and struggle. And by constraining the government, the Constitution promotes the freedom of the individual. In fact, the Bill of Rights and all subsequent amendments to the Constitution protect, by Rule of Law, the "inalienable Rights" as well as many other civil liberties that go beyond Mr. Jefferson's three. This ensures that the liberty of U.S. citizens cannot be infringed upon by the government, and that citizens can enjoy life and pursue happiness without being oppressed by the government.

The Rule of Law also ensures that an individual's rights to Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness are not infringed upon by another individual. In other words, one is entitled to one's rights as long as one's actions do not interfere with someone else's rights. For example, even though every citizen is entitled to civil liberties, the Rule of Law does not permit murder. Does illegalizing murder conflict with the ideals of the Constitution, since every citizen is guaranteed "liberty"? No, because if criminals are given the freedom to murder, they take away the victims' right to Life.

Almost every country has a "Rule of Law," but the United States is unique in that our Rule of Law, as dictated in the Constitution, holds the freedom of the individual more valuable than the power of the government. The result of this limitation of government and empowerment of citizens has been a society in which individualism is especially prominent. The United States has been described as having an "adversarial" culture. This conflict within our government has guaranteed that the American people will always enjoy their rights to Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness, and that the balance of power between American government and American citizens is perhaps the most stable in the world.