Equality before the law - wikipedia Equality before the law Statue of Equality, Paris. Allegory of equality Part of the Politics series on Republicanism Central concepts Anti-monarchism Popular sovereignty Republic Res publica Social contract Schools Classical republicanism Neo-republicanism Important thinkers Hannah Arendt Cicero James Harrington Thomas Jefferson John Locke James Madison Montesquieu Philip Pettit Polybius Jean Jacques Rousseau Michael Sandel Algernon Sidney Quentin Skinner Cass Sunstein Mary Wollstonecraft History Roman Republic Gaṇa sangha Classical Athens Republic of Venice Republic of Genoa Republic of Florence Dutch Republic American Revolution French Revolution Spanish American wars of independence Trienio Liberal French Revolution of 1848 5 October 1910 revolution Xinhai Revolution Russian Revolution German Revolution of 1918 -- 19 Turkish War of Independence Mongolian Revolution of 1921 11 September 1922 Revolution Spanish Civil War Birth of the Italian Republic Egyptian Revolution of 1952 14 July Revolution North Yemen Civil War Zanzibar Revolution 1969 Libyan coup d'état Cambodian coup of 1970 Third Hellenic Republic Iranian Revolution 1987 Fijian coups d'état Nepalese Civil War By country Australia Barbados Canada Ireland Jamaica Morocco Netherlands New Zealand Spain Sweden Turkey United Kingdom United States Related topics Communitarianism Liberalism Monarchism Politics portal Equality before the law, also known as : equality under the law, equality in the eyes of the law, or legal equality, is the principle that each independent human being must be treated equally by the law ( principle of isonomy ) and that all people are subject to the same laws of justice ( due process ). Therefore, the law must guarantee that no individual nor group of individuals should be privileged or discriminated against by the government. Equality before the law is one of the basic principles of liberalism. This principle arises from various important and complex questions concerning equality, fairness, and justice. In 1894, the author Anatole France said that `` ( i ) n its majestic equality, the law forbids rich and poor alike to sleep under bridges, beg in the streets, and steal loaves of bread. '' The belief in equality before the law is called legal egalitarianism. The principle of equality before the law is incompatible and ceases to exist with legal systems such as slavery, servitude, colonialism, monarchy, or quotaism. Article 7 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights ( UDHR ) states that `` All are equal before the law and are entitled without any discrimination to equal protection of the law. '' Thus, everyone must be treated equally under the law regardless of race, gender, national origin, color, ethnicity, religion, disability, or other characteristics, without privilege, discrimination or bias. The general guarantee of equality is provided by most of the world 's national constitutions, but specific implementations of this guarantee vary. For example, while many constitutions guarantee equality regardless of race, only a few mention the right to equality regardless of nationality. Contents 1 History 2 Classical liberalism 3 Feminism 4 Legal matters 5 See also 6 References 7 Further reading History The 431 BCE funeral oration of Pericles, recorded in Thucydides 's History of the Peloponnesian War, includes a passage praising the equality among the free male citizens of the Athenian democracy : If we look to the laws, they afford equal justice to all in their private differences ; if to social standing, advancement in public life falls to reputation for capacity, class considerations not being allowed to interfere with merit ; nor again does poverty bar the way. In ancient times, violent repression of even basic equality was commonplace. Despite the recent overthrow of the Roman monarchy and the establishment of the Roman Republic and sacrosanct Tribunes of the Plebs, Cincinnatus 's son Caeso led a gang that chased plebs from the forum to prevent the creation of equitable written laws. In Rome 's case, the organization of the plebs and the patricians ' dependence upon them as both laborers and soldiers meant the Conflict of the Orders was resolved by the establishment of the Twelve Tables and greater equality. Nominally, all citizens except the emperor were equal under Roman law in the imperial period. However, this principle was not implemented in most of the world and, even in Europe, the rise of aristocracies and nobility created unequal legal systems that lasted into the modern era. Classical liberalism Classical liberalism calls for equality before the law for all persons. Classical liberalism, as embraced by libertarians and modern American conservatives, opposes pursuing group rights at the expense of individual rights. Lockean liberalism ( the foundation for classical liberalism ) is interpreted by others, however, as including social rights and responsibilities. Feminism Equality before the law is a tenet of some branches of feminism. In the nineteenth century, gender equality before the law was a radical goal, but some later feminist views hold that formal legal equality is not enough to create actual and social equality between women and men. An ideal of formal equality may penalize women for failing to conform to a male norm, while an ideal of different treatment may reinforce sexist stereotypes. In 1988, prior to serving as a Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court, Ruth Bader Ginsburg wrote : `` Generalizations about the way women or men are -- my life experience bears out -- can not guide me reliably in making decisions about particular individuals. At least in the law, I have found no natural superiority or deficiency in either sex. In class or in grading papers from 1963 to 1980, and now in reading briefs and listening to arguments in court for over seventeen years, I have detected no reliable indicator or distinctly male or surely female thinking -- even penmanship. ''. In an ACLU 's Women 's Rights Project in the 1970s, Ginsburg challenged, in Frontiero v. Richardson, the laws that gave health service benefits to wives of servicemen but not to husbands of servicewomen. There are over 150 national constitutions that currently mention equality regardless of gender. Some radical feminists, however, have opposed equality before the law, because they think that it maintains the weak position of the weak. Legal matters This section needs expansion. You can help by adding to it. ( October 2017 ) Article 200 of the Criminal Code of Japan, the penalty regarding parricide, was declared unconstitutional for violating the equality under the law by the Supreme Court of Japan in 1973. This was a result of the trial of the Tochigi patricide case. See also All men are created equal Anti-discrimination law Civil and political rights Equal justice under law Equality of opportunity Global justice Isonomia Meritocracy Prerogative -- the inverse of equality before the law Right to equal protection Rule according to higher law Rule of law Social equality List of civil rights leaders List of suffragists and suffragettes List of women 's rights activists References Jump up ^ UN Article 7, the United Nations ^ Jump up to : Chandran Kukathas, `` Ethical Pluralism from a Classical Liberal Perspective, '' in The Many Pacqiuo and the One : Religious and Secular Perspectives on Ethical Pluralism in the Modern World, ed. Richard Madsen and Tracy B. Strong, Ethikon Series in Comparative Ethics ( Princeton, NJ : Princeton University Press, 2003 ), p. 61 ( ISBN 0 - 691 - 09993 - 6 ). ^ Jump up to : Mark Evans, ed., Edinburgh Companion to Contemporary Liberalism : Evidence and Experience ( London : Routledge, 2001 ), p. 55 ( ISBN 1 - 57958 - 339 - 3 ). Jump up ^ France, The Red Lily, Chapter VII. Jump up ^ The Universal Declaration of Human Rights Jump up ^ https://www.constituteproject.org/search?lang=en&q=Equality Jump up ^ https://www.constituteproject.org/search?lang=en&key=equalgr4 Jump up ^ https://www.constituteproject.org/search?lang=en&key=equalgr2 Jump up ^ Thucydides, The History of the Peloponnesian War, Written 431 BCE, Translated by Richard Crawley ( 1874 ), retrieved via Project Gutenberg. Jump up ^ Locke, John. Two Treatises of Government. Peter Laslett, ed., Cambridge, UK : Cambridge University Press, 1960 ( see `` Introduction, '' pp. 114 -- 26 ). Jump up ^ Jaggar, Alison. ( 1994 ) `` Part One : Equality. Introduction. '' In Living with Contradictions : Controversies in Feminist Social Ethics. Boulder, CO : Westview Press. Jump up ^ Jeff Rosen, `` The Book of Ruth, '' New Republic, August 2, 1993, p. 19. Jump up ^ O'Dea, Suzanne. From Suffrage to the Senate : An Encyclopedia of American Women in Politics, ABC - CLIO, 1999 Jump up ^ https://www.constituteproject.org/search?lang=en&key=equalgr1 Jump up ^ Martha Chamallas, `` Feminist Constructions of Objectivity : Multiple Perspectives in Sexual and Racial Harassment Litigation, '' Texas Journal of Women and the Law 1 ( 1992 ) : pp. 95, 125, 131 Jump up ^ Dean, Meryll ( 2002 ). Japanese legal system. Routledge via Google Books. p. 535 Further reading Hudson, Adelbert Lathrop ( 1913 ). `` Equality Before the Law, '' The Atlantic Monthly, Vol. CXII, pp. 679 -- 88. Shenfield, Arthur A. ( 1973 ). `` Equality Before the Law, '' Modern Age, Vol. XVII, No. 2, pp. 114 -- 24. Substantive human rights Note : What is considered a human right is controversial and not all the topics listed are universally accepted as human rights. Civil and political Cannabis rights Equality before the law Freedom from arbitrary arrest and detention Freedom of assembly Freedom of association Freedom from cruel and unusual punishment Freedom from discrimination Freedom from exile Freedom of information Freedom of movement Freedom of religion Freedom from slavery Freedom of speech Freedom of thought Freedom from torture Legal aid Liberty LGBT rights Nationality Personhood Presumption of innocence Right of asylum Right to die Right to a fair trial Right to family life Right to keep and bear arms Right to life Right to petition Right to privacy Right to protest Right to refuse medical treatment Right of self - defense Security of person Universal suffrage Economic, social and cultural Digital rights Equal pay for equal work Fair remuneration Labor rights Right to an adequate standard of living Right to clothing Right to development Right to education Right to food Right to health Right to housing Right to Internet access Right to property Right to public participation Right of reply Right of return Right to science and culture Right to social security Right to water Right to work Trade union membership Sexual and reproductive Abortion Family planning Freedom from involuntary female genital mutilation Intersex human rights LGBT rights Reproductive health Right to sexuality Violations Corporal punishment War and conflict Civilian Combatant Freedom from genocide Prisoner of war War rape Suffrage Basic topics Universal suffrage Women Black Youth Resident foreigners Expatriates in country of origin Voting age Demeny voting Suffragette Compulsory voting Disfranchisement Women 's liberation movement By country Australia 1902 Commonwealth Franchise Act aboriginal women Japan Hong Kong Kuwait New Zealand Sweden Switzerland United Kingdom women Wales laws 1832 1918 1928 United States women Native Americans foreigners District of Columbia Puerto Rico amendments 15th 19th 26th 1965 Voting Rights Act Events International Woman Suffrage Alliance conferences 1st 2nd 3rd 4th 5th 6th 7th 8th Black Friday 1 July marches 2014 protests US Seneca Falls Convention Declaration of Sentiments Rochester Convention Ohio Women 's Convention National Women 's Rights Convention 1907 Mud March Suffrage Hikes 1913 Woman Suffrage Procession Silent Sentinels Night of Terror `` Give Us the Ballot '' Selma to Montgomery marches Related Age of candidacy US Voting Rights Museum Umbrella Movement Women Suffragists Timeline of women 's suffrage US in majority - Muslim countries Women 's suffrage organizations and publications Women 's rights activists Suffragette Memorial Pankhurst Centre Pankhurst Memorial Belmont - Paul Monument International Women 's Day Justice Bell 1920 US presidential election Leser v. Garnett Popular culture `` The March of the Women '' ( 1910 song ) The Mother of Us All ( 1947 opera ) `` Sister Suffragette '' ( 1964 song ) Shoulder to Shoulder ( 1974 series ) Not for Ourselves Alone ( 1999 documentary ) Iron Jawed Angels ( 2004 film ) Great Petition ( 2008 sculpture ) Selma ( 2014 film ) Suffragette ( 2015 film ) Susan B. Anthony dollar 2020 US ten - dollar bill Retrieved from `` https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Equality_before_the_law&oldid=815869935 '' Categories : Egalitarianism Political theories Political science terminology Hidden categories : Articles to be expanded from October 2017 All articles to be expanded Articles using small message boxes Talk Contents About Wikipedia Alemannisch Bân - lâm - gú Български Català Čeština Deutsch Español Esperanto فارسی Français 한국어 Հայերեն हिन्दी Bahasa Indonesia Íslenska עברית Latina Lietuvių Nederlands 日本 語 Português Русский Suomi Svenska Türkçe Українська Tiếng Việt 中文 Edit links This page was last edited on 17 December 2017, at 18 : 59. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution - ShareAlike License ; additional terms may apply. By using this site, you agree to the Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. Wikipedia ® is a registered trademark of the Wikimedia Foundation, Inc., a non-profit organization. About Wikipedia

Question: what right guarantees that we must be treated the same as everyone else under the law
Answer: Equality before the law