Civil Liberties, Habeas Corpus, and the War on Terror - Essay Example

The Bush administration chose U.S. Naval Station in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, as a legal black hole to burr detainees from trials. Detainees serving indefinite time in the detention center have gone untried and others released without clear legal grounds as to why they served time in the first place. Reflecting back on the relevance of the habeas corpus, the US Constitution provides that detainees have the right to hearings in court to prove their guilt or innocence. With reference to humanity, fairness, justice, and freedom to equal human rights, habeas corpus provides grounds for appraising executive authority while upholding the relevance of US constitutional provisions.

The right of habeas corpus is an English common law product. Its fundamental relevance is to create means of summoning individuals before the central courts. In the 14th century, habeas corpus was used to enquire into the grounds of an individual’s detention by local courts. In the 16th century, courts applied habeas corpus to enquire into the detentions ordered by the King’s Privy Council (a body blending judicial and executive powers). In the 17th century, parliament made steps to strengthen the relevance of habeas corpus bringing the King’s acts into its scope, hence, creating the Habeas Corpus Act of 1679 (Habeas Corpus Act, 1679).

With developments in English Law, habeas corpus was exported to most of Britain’s colonies. As the earliest constitutional guarantee, habeas corpus occurred in the US in 1789. Its relevance to both the English and the American Law is that it aims at providing mechanisms to bring a detained individual before a judge to protect the individual’s physical integrity. The Inter-American Court of Human Rights, following a 1987 advisory opinion, argued that the habeas corpus performed a vital role in the protection of