Constitutional value of negative liberty

Author: Lü Yanjun
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2007-02-01
Features: Liberalism is not only a social theory that has significantly influenced the legal systems of Western countries but also an ideological theory that has gradually been valued and accepted by academia and the theoretical circles in China. Negative liberty is the core concept of liberalism, and Western liberal theory primarily revolves around negative liberty. We could even say that liberalism is essentially negative liberalism. Although broad liberalism theory includes both negative and positive liberty, the liberalism we generally refer to is centered on negative liberty, i.e., strict liberalism. In this article, when the term "liberalism" is used, it refers to strict liberalism centered on negative liberty, unless otherwise specified.