WordNet
n. the right to equal protection of the laws
Wikipedia
Equality before the law, also known as equality under the law, equality in the eyes of the law, or legal equality, is the principle under which all people are subject to the same laws of justice ( due process). Law also raises important and complex issues concerning equality, fairness, and justice. There is an old saying that 'All are equal before the law.' The author Anatole France said in 1894, "In 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.
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 their 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 (read the provisions here), but the specifics vary widely. For example, while many constitutions guarantee equality regardless of race (read the provisions here), only a few mention the right to equality regardless of nationality (read the provisions here).
Equality before the law is one of the basic principles of liberalism. But the Achilles Heel of liberalism is naivete. In practice the law is slow and prohibitively expensive. There is little or no equality when an individual confronts the State or a large company such as an Insurance company.
Usage examples of "equality before the law".
To correct this problem, Congress passed in 1866 the Freedman's Bureau Act and the Civil Rights Act, both intended to ensure African-American equality before the law.
At Jena, in the college of law, there was a lot of talk about civil rights, and the concept of equality before the law, but also quite a bit about the up-timer business law and practices.
It's all very well to maximize your gains and minimize your losses, but there are some things you can't weigh by addition and subtraction - things like freedom, privacy, equality before the law, and what I will have to call, rather vaguely, the unique: a moment of understanding, a work of art, a human life.
If this integration could be effected in a genuine fashion, and not merely as a verbal flourish, we could simultaneously honor some of the important differences in sexual beingso emphasized by the radical feministsand yet also insist on, and maintain, equality before the law (which means, in the noosphere) the important demand of liberal feminists.
The heirs of the French, English, and American revolutions had partly believed in their own phrases about the rights of man, freedom of speech, equality before the law, and the like, and have even allowed their conduct to be influenced by them to some extent.
For fifteen years there were seen at work, in complete peace, and openly in public places, these great principles, so old to the thinker, so new to the statesman: equality before the law, freedom of conscience, freedom of speech, freedom of the press, the accessibility of every function to every aptitude.