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common law liberties (from my Reduced Law Dictionary (101 words each) in New Law Journal)

"Who told you you could do that?"
Whenever anyone asks that question he or she undermines our freedoms under English common law. We do not need permission to do things. In principle, under English law you may to anything that is not expressly forbidden. Under codified European law systems, you may do nothing unless expressly permitted, and, under Soviet and other despotic laws, anything that you are not required to do is prohibited. In practice the English principle is not quite like this, because liberty restricts power and is something which all governments, bureaucracies and big businesses constantly seek to undermine.

I fear that the IBS and Frank Maher are right. We have seldom bothered to maintain the eternal vigilance that is the price of liberty but have grumbled a bit and then acquiesced with each successive undermining.