On Montesquieu’s Theory Of Guaranteeing Liberty

Political liberty is Montesquieu’s lifelong pursuit.One of the key points discussed over his masterpiece The Spirit of the Laws is the construction of security system of political liberty.So it is very important to show Montesquieu’s theory of forming political liberty systematically.According to Montesquieu’s division of forming political liberty in the two levels of "constitution" and "citizen",this thesis divides political liberty into "political liberty associated with constitution" and "political liberty associated with citizen",which discussed its theory of forming political liberty.In Montesquieu’s view,political liberty means "peace of mind".On the level of "constitution",in terms of the relationship between the rulers and the ruled,the attack on citizens’ security mainly comes from the abuse of public power.However,on the level of "citizen",in terms of the relationship between citizens,the security is never more attacked than by public or private accusations.Therefore,the first part which talks about forming political liberty at the level of "constitution",the primary mission is to limit public power.Montesquieu believes that if we want to reasonably restrict public power,the first thing we have to do is to solve the problem of power resource,which means we need a better "constitution".Thus,he designs a moderate government for the purpose of liberty that is based on the British’s constitutional monarchy.Then we have to face the problem of government power’s distribution and operation.Similarly,Montesquieu also copies British’s constitutional monarchy,and improves Locke’s theory of "separation of powers",designs a new system called "separation of powers",which divides national power into legislative power,executive power and the power of judging,and makes these three powers mutually separate,restrict and balance each other for achieving a state of check and balance,so as to satisfy citizens with the greatest degree of political liberty at the level of "constitution".For the second part,while forming political liberty at the "citizen" level,the primary mission is to defend citizens’ rights and strive them for the greatest sense of legal security.Montesquieu believes that citizens’ liberty depends principally on the goodness of the criminal laws and the strictness of judicial procedures at the level of civil laws.According to the criminal law thought he discussed,the goodness of his criminal laws is mainly a kind of law that pursues rationality,moderate legislation and the punishment’s temper justice with mercy,which basic principle is "conviction and sentencing according to the nature of crime".Through this dual guarantee of substantive law and procedural law,Montesquieu firmly believes that political liberty will eventually realize.