The Magna Carta (1215)
Magna Carta, or “Great Charter,” signed by the King of England in 1215, was a turning point in
constitionalism.
The Magna Carta, or “Great Charter,” was arguably the most significant early influence on the
extensive historical process that led to the rule of constitutional law today in the English-
speaking world.
In 1215, after King John of England violated a number of ancient laws and customs by which
England had been governed, his subjects forced him to sign the Magna Carta, which enumerates
what later came to be thought of as human rights. Among them was:
the right of the church to be free from governmental interference,
the rights of all free citizens to own and inherit property and
to be protected from excessive taxes.
It established the right of widows who owned property to choose not to remarry, and
established principles of due process and equality before the law.
It also contained provisions forbidding bribery and official misconduct.
Widely viewed as one of the most important legal documents in the development of modern
democracy, the Magna Carta was a crucial turning point in the struggle to establish freedom.
Petition of Right (1628)
In 1628 the English Parliament sent this statement of civil liberties to King Charles I.
The next recorded milestone in the development of constitionalism was the Petition of Right,
produced in 1628 by the English Parliament and sent to Charles I as a statement of civil liberties.
Refusal by Parliament to finance the king’s unpopular foreign policy had caused his government
to exact forced loans and to quarter troops in subjects’ houses as an economy measure. Arbitrary
arrest and imprisonment for opposing these policies had produced in Parliament a violent
hostility to Charles and to George Villiers, the Duke of Buckingham. The Petition of Right,
initiated by Sir Edward Coke, was based upon earlier statutes and charters and asserted four
principles:
(1) No taxes may be levied without consent of Parliament,
(2) No subject may be imprisoned without cause shown (reaffirmation of the right of habeas
corpus),
(3) No soldiers may be quartered upon the citizenry, and
(4) Martial law may not be used in time of peace.
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United States Declaration of Independence (1776)
In 1776, Thomas Jefferson penned the American Declaration of Independence.
On July 4, 1776, the United States Congress approved the Declaration of Independence. Its
primary author, Thomas Jefferson, wrote the Declaration as a formal explanation of why
Congress had voted on July 2 to declare independence from Great Britain, more than a year after
the outbreak of the American Revolutionary War, and as a statement announcing that the thirteen
American Colonies were no longer a part of the British Empire. Congress issued the Declaration
of Independence in several forms. It was initially published as a printed broadsheet that was
widely distributed and read to the public.
Philosophically, the Declaration stressed two themes:
individual rights and
the right of revolution.
These ideas became widely held by Americans and spread internationally as well, influencing in
particular the French Revolution.
The Constitution of the United States of America (1787) and Bill of Rights
(1791)
The Bill of Rights of the US Constitution protects basic freedoms of United States citizens.
Written during the summer of 1787 in Philadelphia, the Constitution of the United States of
America is the fundamental law of the US federal system of government and the landmark ‘:the
principal organs of government and their jurisdictions and the basic rights of citizens.
The first ten amendments to the Constitution—the Bill of Rights—came into effect on December
15, 1791, limiting the powers of the federal government of the United States and protecting the
rights of all citizens, residents and visitors in American territory.
The Bill of Rights protects:
(1) freedom of speech,
(2) freedom of religion,
(3) the right to keep and bear arms,
(4) the freedom of assembly and
(5) the freedom to petition.
(6) It also prohibits unreasonable search and seizure,
(7) cruel and unusual punishment and compelled self-incrimination.
(8) Among the legal protections it affords, the Bill of Rights prohibits Congress from making
any law respecting establishment of religion and
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(9) prohibits the federal government from depriving any person of life, liberty or property
without due process of law.
(10) In federal criminal cases it requires indictment by a grand jury for any capital
offense, or infamous crime, guarantees a speedy public trial with an impartial jury in the
district in which the crime occurred, and prohibits double jeopardy.
Following the French Revolution in 1789, the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the
Citizen granted specific freedoms from oppression, as an “expression of the general will.”
Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen (1789)
In 1789 the people of France brought about the abolishment of the absolute monarchy and set the
stage for the establishment of the first French Republic. Just six weeks after the storming of the
Bastille, and barely three weeks after the abolition of feudalism, the Declaration of the Rights of
Man and of the Citizen (French: La Déclaration des Droits de l’Homme et du Citoyen) was
adopted by the National Constituent Assembly as the first step toward writing a constitution for
the Republic of France.
The Declaration proclaims that
all citizens are to be guaranteed the rights of “liberty, property, security, and resistance to
oppression.” It argues that the need for law derives from the fact that “...the exercise of
the natural rights of each man has only those borders which assure other members of the
society the enjoyment of these same rights.” Thus, the Declaration sees law as an
“expression of the general will,“ intended to promote this equality of rights and to forbid
“only actions harmful to the society.”
