First principle: the liberty principle[edit]
The first and most important principle is that everyone has the same rights and fundamental freedoms. Rawls argued that "certain rights and freedoms are more important or fundamental "than others."[2] For example, Samuel Freeman argues, Rawls believes that "personal property"—personal belongings, a home—constitutes a basic liberty, but an absolute right to unlimited private property is not.[3] As a fundamental freedom, these rights are inviolable. The government must not alter, violate or remove such rights from individuals.[4] Thomas Mertens says Rawls believes that the principles of society are chosen by representative citizens on "fair" terms.[5]
Rawls articulates the liberty principle as the most extensive basic liberty compatible with similar liberty for others in A Theory of Justice; he later amended this in Political Liberalism, stating instead that "each person has an equal claim to a fully adequate scheme of equal basic rights and liberties".[6]