A bill of rights, sometimes called a declaration of rights or a charter of rights, is a list of the most important rights to the citizens of a country. The purpose is to protect those rights against infringement from public officials and private citizens.[1]
Bills of rights may be entrenched or unentrenched. An entrenched bill of rights cannot be amended or repealed by a country's legislature through regular procedure, instead requiring a supermajority or referendum; often it is part of a country's constitution, and therefore subject to special procedures applicable to constitutional amendments.
History
editThe history of legal charters asserting certain rights for particular groups goes back to the Middle Ages and earlier. An example is Magna Carta, an English legal charter agreed between the King and his barons in 1215.[2] In the early modern period, there was renewed interest in Magna Carta.[3][4] English common law judge Sir Edward Coke revived the idea of rights based on citizenship (see history of citizenship) by arguing that Englishmen had historically enjoyed such rights. The Petition of Right 1628, the Habeas Corpus Act 1679 and the Bill of Rights 1689 (English Bill of Rights) established certain rights in statute.
In the Thirteen Colonies, the English Bill of Rights was one of the influences on the 1776 Virginia Declaration of Rights, which in turn influenced the United States Declaration of Independence later that year.[5][6] After the Constitution of the United States was adopted in 1789, the United States Bill of Rights was ratified in 1791. The U.S. Constitution and Bill of Rights were influenced by British constitutional history.[7][8][9]
Inspired by the Age of Enlightenment, the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen asserted the universality of rights.[10] It was adopted in 1789 by France's National Constituent Assembly, during the period of the French Revolution.
The 20th century saw different groups draw on these earlier documents for influence when drafting the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the European Convention on Human Rights and the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child.[11]
Exceptions in Western democracies
editThe constitution of the United Kingdom remains uncodified.[2] However, the Bill of Rights 1689 is part of UK law. The Human Rights Act 1998 also incorporates the rights contained in the European Convention on Human Rights into UK law. In the 21st century, there were proposals for a British Bill of Rights and the UK Parliament debated a Bill of Rights Bill but it was not passed into legislation.
Australia is the only common law country with neither a constitutional nor federal legislative bill of rights to protect its citizens, although there is ongoing debate in many of Australia's states.[12][13] In 1973, Federal Attorney-General Lionel Murphy introduced a human rights Bill into parliament, although it was never passed.[14] In 1984, Senator Gareth Evans drafted a Bill of Rights, but it was never introduced into parliament, and in 1985, Senator Lionel Bowen introduced a bill of rights, which was passed by the House of Representatives, but failed to pass the Senate.[14] Former Australian Prime Minister John Howard has argued against a bill of rights for Australia on the grounds it would transfer power from elected politicians to unelected judges and bureaucrats.[15][16] Victoria, Queensland and the Australian Capital Territory (ACT) are the only states and territories to have a human rights Act.[17][18][19] However, the principle of legality present in the Australian judicial system, seeks to ensure that legislation is interpreted so as not to interfere with basic human rights, unless legislation expressly intends to interfere.[20]
List of bills of rights
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General
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Specifically targeted documents
edit- Consumer Bill of Rights
- Homeless Bill of Rights
- Taxpayer Bill of Rights
- Academic Bill of Rights
- Veterans' Bill of Rights
- G.I. Bill of Rights, better known as the G.I. Bill
- Homosexual Bill of Rights, drafted by North American Conference of Homophile Organizations
- Library Bill of Rights, published by the American Library Association
- Environmental Bill of Rights or Agenda 21
- Creator's Bill of Rights, comic writers and artists
- Donor's Bill of Rights, for philanthropic donors[22]
- Law Enforcement Officers' Bill of Rights
- California Voter Bill of Rights, adaptation of the Voting Rights Act
- Islamic Bill of Rights for Women in the Mosque
- New Jersey Anti-Bullying Bill of Rights Act
- Credit Cardholders' Bill of Rights, contained within the Credit CARD Act of 2009
- Sexual Assault Survivors' Bill of Rights (Sexual Assault Survivors' Rights Act)
See also
editReferences
edit- ^ Sellers, Mortimer N. S. (2013). "Universal Human Rights Law in the United States". In Haeck, Yves; Brems, Eva (eds.). Human Rights and Civil Liberties in the 21st Century. Ius Gentium: Comparative Perspectives on Law and Justice. Vol. 30. Dordrecht: Springer Netherlands. pp. 15–35. doi:10.1007/978-94-007-7599-2_2. ISBN 978-94-007-7598-5.
- ^ a b Rau, Zbigniew; Żurawski vel Grajewski, Przemysław; Tracz-Tryniecki, Marek, eds. (2016). Magna Carta: A Central European Perspective of Our Common Heritage of Freedom. Rutledge. p. xvi. ISBN 978-1317278597.
Britain in its history proposed many pioneering documents – not only Magna Carta, 1215 but those such as the Provisions of Oxford 1258, the Petition of Right 1628, the Bill of Rights 1689, and the Claim of Right 1689
- ^ "From legal document to public myth: Magna Carta in the 17th century". The British Library. Retrieved 2017-10-16
- ^ "Magna Carta: Magna Carta in the 17th Century". The Society of Antiquaries of London. Archived from the original on 2018-09-25. Retrieved 2017-10-16.
- ^ "Constitutionalism: America & Beyond". Bureau of International Information Programs (IIP), U.S. Department of State. Archived from the original on 24 October 2014. Retrieved 30 October 2014.
The earliest, and perhaps greatest, victory for liberalism was achieved in England. The rising commercial class that had supported the Tudor monarchy in the 16th century led the revolutionary battle in the 17th and succeeded in establishing the supremacy of Parliament and, eventually, of the House of Commons. What emerged as the distinctive feature of modern constitutionalism was not the insistence on the idea that the king is subject to law (although this concept is an essential attribute of all constitutionalism). This notion was already well established in the Middle Ages. What was distinctive was the establishment of effective means of political control whereby the rule of law might be enforced. Modern constitutionalism was born with the political requirement that representative government depended upon the consent of citizen subjects... However, as can be seen through provisions in the 1689 Bill of Rights, the English Revolution was fought not just to protect the rights of property (in the narrow sense) but to establish those liberties which liberals believed essential to human dignity and moral worth. The "rights of man" enumerated in the English Bill of Rights gradually were proclaimed beyond the boundaries of England, notably in the American Declaration of Independence of 1776 and in the French Declaration of the Rights of Man in 1789.
- ^ Maier, Pauline (1997). American Scripture: Making the Declaration of Independence. New York: Knopf. pp. 126–128. ISBN 0679454926.
- ^ Schwartz, Bernard (1992). The Great Rights of Mankind: A History of the American Bill of Rights. Rowman & Littlefield. pp. 1–2. ISBN 9780945612285.
- ^ Conley, Patrick T.; States, U.S. Constitution Council of the Thirteen Original (1992). The Bill of Rights and the States: The Colonial and Revolutionary Origins of American Liberties. Rowman & Littlefield. pp. 13–15. ISBN 9780945612292.
- ^ Montoya, Maria; Belmonte, Laura A.; Guarneri, Carl J.; Hackel, Steven; Hartigan-O'Connor, Ellen (2016). Global Americans: A History of the United States. Cengage Learning. p. 116. ISBN 9780618833108.
- ^ Liberty, Equality, Fraternity: Exploring the French Revolution. Penn State Press. 2001. ISBN 0271040130.
- ^ Hugh Starkey, Professor of Citizenship and Human Rights Education at UCL Institute of Education, London. "Magna Carta and Human rights legislation". British Library. Retrieved 22 November 2016.
- ^ Suter, Keith (18 July 2008). "Does Australia need a Bill of Rights?". Wesley Mission. Archived from the original on 2013-11-10.
- ^ Anderson, Deb (21 September 2010). "Does Australia need a bill of rights?". The Age. Melbourne.
- ^ a b "Part Four: A Human Rights Act?" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2014-02-13. Retrieved 2014-10-26.
- ^ "Howard opposes Bill of Rights". PerthNow. The Sunday Times. 2009-08-27. Retrieved 2009-09-14.[permanent dead link]
- ^ Howard, John (2009-08-27). "2009 Menzies Lecture by John Howard (full text)". The Australian. News Limited. Archived from the original on 2009-08-30. Retrieved 2009-09-14.
- ^ Charter of Human Rights and Responsibilities Act 2008 (Vic).
- ^ Human Rights Act 2004 (ACT).
- ^ "Human Rights Act 2019". legislation.qld.gov.au. Queensland Government. 7 March 2019. Retrieved 4 April 2019.
- ^ Potter v Minahan [1908] HCA 63, (1908) 7 CLR 277, High Court (Australia).
- ^ "Constitution of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania - 1776". Duquesne University. Archived from the original on October 21, 2016. Retrieved December 29, 2016.
- ^ "The Donors Bill of Rights". Association of Fundraising Professionals (AFP). 2022-12-21. Retrieved 2022-12-22.
