Everything about Bill Of Rights 1689 totally explained
The
English Bill of Rights 1689 is an
Act of the
Parliament of England (1 Will. & Mar. sess. 2 c. 2) with the
long title An Act Declaring the Rights and Liberties of the Subject and Settling the Succession of the Crown and known by its
short title, the
Bill of Rights or
Declaration of Rights. It is one of the basic documents of
English constitutional law, alongside
Magna Carta, the
Act of Settlement and the
Parliament Acts. It also forms part of the law of some other
Commonwealth nations, such as
New Zealand and
Canada. A separate but similar document applies in
Scotland: the
Claim of Right.
The Bill of Rights 1689 is largely a statement of certain
rights that its authors considered that
citizens and/or
residents of a
constitutional monarchy ought to have. It asserts the Subject's
right to petition the Monarch and the Subject's right to bear arms for defence. It also sets out (or in the view of its writers, restates) certain constitutional requirements where the actions of
the Crown require the consent of the governed as represented in
Parliament. In this respect, it differs from other "bills of rights," including the
United States Bill of Rights, though many elements of the first eight
amendments to the
U.S. Constitution echo its contents. This is in part due to the uncodified constitutional traditions of the UK, whereby the English Bill of Rights forms a list of rights in respect of the people as represented in Parliament, in addition to those rights already provided for individuals as set out in Magna Carta.
Background
In the
Glorious Revolution,
William of Orange landed with his army in England on
5 November 1688.
James II attempted to resist the invasion. He then sent representatives to negotiate but finally fled on
23 December 1688.
Before William and
Mary were affirmed as co-rulers of
England and
Ireland, they accepted a
Declaration of Right drawn up by the
Convention Parliament which was delivered to them at the
Banqueting House,
Whitehall, on
13 February 1689. Having accepted the Declaration of Right, William and Mary were offered the throne, and were crowned as joint monarchs in April 1689. The Declaration of Right was later embodied in an Act of Parliament, now known as the Bill of Rights, on
16 December 1689.
In the then separate Kingdom of
Scotland, the 1689
Claim of Right of the
Scottish Estates was expressed in different terms, but to a largely similar effect, declaring William and Mary to be King and Queen of Scotland on
11 April 1689.
Basic tenets
The basic
tenets of the Bill of Rights 1689 are:
- Englishmen, as embodied by Parliament, possessed certain immutable civil and political rights. These included:
- freedom from royal interference with the law (the Sovereign was forbidden to establish his own courts or to act as a judge himself)
- freedom from taxation by royal prerogative, without agreement by Parliament
- freedom to petition the Monarch
- freedom from a peace-time standing army, without agreement by Parliament
- freedom [forProtestants] to have arms for their defence, suitable to their class status and as allowed by law
- freedom to elect members of Parliament without interference from the Sovereign
- the freedom of speech in Parliament, in that proceedings in Parliament were not to be questioned in the courts or in any body outside Parliament itself (the basis of modern parliamentary privilege)
- freedom from cruel and unusual punishments, and excessive bail
- freedom from fines and forfeitures without trial
- Certain acts of James II were specifically named and declared illegal on this basis.
- The flight of James from England in the wake of the Glorious Revolution amounted to abdication of the throne.
- Roman Catholics couldn't be king or queen of England since "it hath been found by experience that it's inconsistent with the safety and welfare of this protestant kingdom to be governed by a papist prince". The Sovereign was required to swear a coronation oath to maintain the Protestant religion.
- William and Mary were the successors of James.
- Succession should pass to the heirs of Mary, then to Mary's sister Princess Anne of Denmark and her heirs, then to any heirs of William by a later marriage.
- The Sovereign was required to summon Parliament frequently, later reinforced by the Triennial Act 1694.
Augmentation
The Bill of Rights 1689 was later supplemented in England by the
Act of Settlement 1701, and in Scotland the Claim of Right was supplemented by the
Act of Union 1707. The Bill of Rights and Claim of Right contributed a great deal to the establishment of British
parliamentary sovereignty, and the curtailment of the rights of the
monarchy. They largely settled the political and religious turmoil that had convulsed
Scotland,
England and
Ireland in the 17th century. The Bill of Rights and Claim of Right were two main causes of the transmutation of Britain into a
constitutional monarchy.
The Bill of Rights 1689 is a predecessor of the
United States Constitution, the
United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the
European Convention on Human Rights. For example, like the Bill of Rights, the U.S. Constitution requires jury trials and prohibits excessive bail and "cruel and unusual punishments". Similarly, "cruel, inhuman or degrading punishments" are banned under Article 5 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and Article 3 of the European Convention on Human Rights.
The Bill of Rights and Claim of Right are still law in the
United Kingdom and are occasionally cited in legal proceedings. On
21 July 1995, a
libel case brought by
Neil Hamilton, then a
Member of Parliament, against
The Guardian was stopped after Mr Justice May ruled that the prohibition on the courts questioning parliamentary proceedings contained in the Bill of Rights would prevent
The Guardian from obtaining a fair trial. Section 13 of the
Defamation Act 1996 was enacted subsequently to permit an MP to waive his
parliamentary privilege.
The Bill of Rights is listed in the
Republic of Ireland's
Statute Law Revision (Pre-Union) Bill 2006 as an English Act of Parliament to be retained as part of the Republic's law.
The Bill of Rights was invoked in
New Zealand in the 1976 case of
Fitzgerald v Muldoon and Others. Shortly after being elected in 1975
Prime Minister Muldoon issued a press release purporting to abolish a superannuation scheme established by the New Zealand Superannuation Act 1974. Although no law had been passed to abolish the scheme the Prime Minister declared that its abolition had immediate effect because parliament would shortly introduce a retroactive law abolishing the scheme. The Prime Minister's action was challenged in court and the Chief Justice of New Zealand declared that he'd acted illegally, because he'd violated Article 1 of the Bill of Rights, which provides:
» That the pretended power of suspending of laws or the execution of laws by regal authority without consent of Parliament is illegal [
sic].
Two special designs of the British commemorative
two pound coins were issued in 1989 to celebrate the tercentenary of the
Glorious Revolution, one referring to the Bill of Rights and the other to the Claim of Right. Both depict the
cypher of William and Mary and
mace of the
House of Commons; one also shows a representation of the
St. Edward's Crown and the other, the
Crown of Scotland.
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