ABSTRACT
The liberalism of the modern age has provided much of the impetus for the formulation and consolidation of human rights as an integral part of modern legal systems, often expressed through constitutional bills of rights or international conventions, and as an underlying aspect of its legal culture, generally expounded in academic treatises or in philosophical debate. Central to this liberalism is the human being as an autonomous person capable of creating life's own opportunities, each entitled to the protective mechanisms of the state, each carving out a personal pattern that is unique by virtue of the idiosyncrasies of every individual. Thus, the freedoms of speech, expression and religion and the protection from arbitrary arrest or harsh punishment.
