Vocabulary Builder — Essay & Answer Writing
Inviolable
Never to be broken, infringed, or dishonoured; too important or sacred to be interfered with; secure from violation or assault
Latin inviolabilis, in (not) + violabilis (able to be violated, from violare, to violate, to harm)
"The Supreme Court's doctrine of the basic structure holds that certain core features of the Constitution, including judicial review, fundamental rights, and democratic governance, are inviolable and cannot be amended even by Parliament's constituent power."
Important for GS2 (Polity, constitutional law, fundamental rights, sovereignty). Key contexts: (1) Basic Structure Doctrine (Kesavananda Bharati, 1973), certain constitutional provisions are inviolable. (2) Sovereign immunity, a state's core rights are inviolable under international law. (3) Nuclear non-proliferation, India treats its strategic deterrent as inviolable. (4) Treaty obligations, under Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties, jus cogens norms (peremptory norms of international law) are inviolable. Used in editorial contexts about constitutional morality, rights-based approaches, and humanitarian law.
