Amanda Tyler, Habeas Corpus: A Very Short Introduction

Excerpt

Habeas corpus has long stood as an emblem of freedom under law, preserving a person’s right to personal liberty by enabling him to challenge the legality of his detention before a court. For A.V. Dicey, whose magisterial Law of the Constitution was first published in 1885, the writ of habeas corpus showed that the value of rights depends on their means of practical enforcement. Habeas corpus is essentially a procedural remedy, giving judges the power to uphold the law in particular cases by ordering the release of persons wrongfully detained. In Dicey’s well-known eulogy, the Habeas Corpus Acts “declare no principle and define no rights, but they are for practical purposes worth a hundred constitutional articles guaranteeing individual liberty” (Oxford edn., 2013, p. 117). Rights that were a product of the ordinary law, woven into the daily practice of the courts, were more secure, in Dicey’s view, than those contained in constitutional documents. Bills or declarations of rights could too easily be revoked or withdrawn in a hostile political climate. …