 No individual is entitled to inflict gratuitous harm upon another and no one should have to live in fear. These are among the few uncontroversial principles accepted in all moral systems and form the core of the criminal law in every society. Keeping peace and order has long been considered a fundamental justification for the very existence of the state or legal authority. Many philosophers have explicitly supported this idea, even those who argue for limitations on the state.  J.S. Mill,  for example, argued that the only legitimate reason for interference by the state in the affairs of individuals is to prevent one person from harming another. Thomas Hobbes argued that peace (i.e., personal security) is the ultimate political value for which a rational individual would sign on to the social contract justifying state power to protect the security of every man from the potential threat of every other (see the entry on  Hobbes’ moral and political philosophy).  And  Montesquieu  defined political liberty as the tranquility of mind that comes from not being subject to fear for one’s safety. To achieve such tranquility of mind he proposed the separation of (governmental) powers to retard the abuse of power that could so threaten the security of citizens. From  Confucius  and Lao Tzu to Mohammed or Gandhi, and from the Ten Commandments to the Code of Hammurabi, personal security—freedom from fear—is a value that the state is expected to secure and maintain.