The authority to judge what are the powers of the government, and what the liberties of the people, must necessarily be vested in one or the other of the parties themselves the government, or the people; because there is no third party to whom it can be entrusted.
Spooner discusses the necessity of determining who holds the power to define government authority and individual liberties.
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The people considered their jurisprudence as a part of their inheritance.
It was simply, that they would neither convict the innocent, nor acquit the guilty.
When two men meet one upon the highway, or in the wilderness, have they a right to dispose of his life, liberty, or property at their pleasure, simply because they are the more numerous party?
A man has a natural right to enforce his own rights and redress his own wrongs.