Individual Guarantees (Meaning and Explanation)

We explain what the individual guarantees defined by each Constitution are, their characteristics, classification and examples.

individual guarantees constitutional law — The constitutions of many countries determine the individual guarantees of citizens.

What are individual guarantees?

In some national legislations, constitutional rights or fundamental rights are called individual guarantees or constitutional guarantees. That is to say that are the minimum basic rights enshrined in the Constitution of a given nation.

These rights are considered essential for the political system and are linked to human dignity, that is, are natural to any citizen regardless of their condition, identity or culture. For this reason, they enjoy a special status among the laws that constitute the legal system.

The protection of these guarantees varies depending on the legal framework we examine. As first generation rights, always enjoy a privileged status above the rest of the rights political, social, commercial or otherwise.

The procedures and mechanisms for this are, ordinarily, described in the Constitution of each country, and are the exclusive matter of attention of the State. And only he is empowered, under conditions of very special consideration, to temporarily suspend them.

They should not be confused with Universal Human Rights.

Characteristics of individual guarantees

Individual guarantees are a matter of public and subjective law, whose compliance is the responsibility of the State, through its various institutions. Commonly these rights are:

Unilateral The State exercises them without distinction and on its own account.
Inalienable In no case can a citizen deprive himself of them or be deprived of them.
Non-transferable The guarantees apply to each specific individual and to him alone.
Enduring They never expire or prescribe, except in cases contemplated by the Constitution itself.
Sovereigns They obey the political Constitution of a given nation and adjust to the rules that govern its territory.

You may be interested: Constitutional Law

Classification of individual guarantees

individual guarantees freedom of faith religion — Individual guarantees of freedom include freedom of religion.

Individual guarantees are classified into three orders:

Equality guarantees Those that ensure equality before the law, that is, that all citizens have the exact same treatment under the same circumstances.
Guarantees of freedom Those that allow the individual to freely exercise a lawful profession, express their ideas in the way they prefer, move as they wish, practice religion, and in general terms exercise any other right without the need for approval or supervision from anyone, as long as they do not hurt anyone in the process.
Property guarantees Those economic guarantees that allow the individual to carry out lawful transactions, possess movable or immovable properties, and exercise decision over their own assets.
Legal security guarantees Those that ensure individuals' physical and/or psychological well-being before the forces of the State, as well as the right to due process in the event that they break any law.

Examples of individual guarantees

As an example, we can cite some fundamental rights of the Spanish Constitution:

Right to life including the abolition of the death penalty.
Right to physical and moral integrity therefore torture, punishment or inhuman treatment is prohibited.
Right to freedom of belief so that anyone can profess creeds or ideologies according to their interest, and the State declares itself non-denominational, that is, without an official religion.
Right to legal security and judicial protection which guarantees that in all cases the individual is subjected to a judicial process with guarantees, with the right to an ordinary judge, to the defense and assistance of a lawyer, to hear the accusations against him, to not testify against himself and to the presumption of innocence, among other things.

Individual guarantees in Mexico

Individual guarantees in the Political Constitution of the United Mexican States are found in their dogmatic part where the undeniable and fundamental principles of the rule of law are found.

This section includes the first 29 articles of the Constitution. They cannot be suspended except in the cases contemplated in articles 1 to 29 thereof.

Continue with: Civil law