The Legal Scopes of Liberty and the State in Light of the Utilitarianism of John Stuart Mill

Abstract

In modern democracies the liberty of the individual is ensured and protected by the state or the government. But it is well-known that restrictions on liberty are institutionalized and the individual is responsible for obeying them. The liberty of the individual and its protection is provided through restrictions. On the other hand, the legal system and the government are the institutions that threaten the liberty of the individual. Mill’s thesis on individual liberty implies the primacy of it and sets out the social conditions in which it will be possible to realize and protect individual liberty. The main theme of his treatise On Liberty is the nature and boundaries of individual liberty, the scope of legitimate interference with individual liberty. In other words, the principle establishes a sufficient basis for the legitimate protection of the individual liberty, i.e. what is a restriction of a right, on the one hand, is at the same time a protection of it. An individual must be free from all forms of violence, if his/her actions do not harm others [Riley 2001, 46]. The purpose of the paper On Liberty is to provide one very simple principle. Main point of it is that the method of societies’ relations with the individual should not be coercion and control. No matter is it a case of physical violence as a form of punishment or as a form of moral coercion by society. Power over a member of a civilized community can only be exercised for the sole purpose of preventing harm to others. Thus, the liberty principle establishes a necessary condition for legitimate violence against any individual: his/her liberty of action must be restricted by law or opinion if there is a reasonable expectation that it will harm others.