“Political liberty consists in security, or, at least, in the opinion that we enjoy security. This security is never more dangerously attacked than in public or private accusations. It is, therefore, on the goodness of criminal laws that the liberty of the subject principally depends.”

The security-liberty link has sometimes been obscure to some people, especially those more used to thinking about trade-offs between liberty and security. But, as Montesquieu understood, those who are not secure from arbitrary arrest, imprisonment without trial, or murder in the streets are not free.