ABSTRACT
John Rawls states that the only grounds for restricting liberty are the sake of liberty itself. This chapter provides a consideration of two other basic liberties, namely, the rule of law and the equal liberty of conscience. It looks at the case where Ben, say, has to choose between a less extensive equal liberty or a less than equal liberty. While Ben may be prepared to hand over power to judges because there are many advantages in doing so, he will not agree to less than equal liberty with respect to the rule of law just to get an economic gain. If Ann, say, is the judge and has powers that ordinary citizens such as Ben do not have, it is solely so that she can enforce an equal liberty for all, including Ben. Equal liberty of conscience is not a liberty needed to preserve other liberties but one of the other liberties to be preserved.
