Bill of Rights 1689
The Bill of Rights 1689 is an English
Act of Parliament
with the long title An Act Declaring the Rights and
Liberties of the Subject and Settling the Succession of the Crown and
known colloquially in the UK as the "Bill of Rights." It is one of the basic
documents of English constitutional law, alongside
Magna Carta,
the Act of Settlement
and the Parliament Acts. A separate but similar document
applies in Scotland, the Claim of Right.
The Bill of Rights 1689 is not a
bill of rights,
in the sense of a statement of certain rights that citizens
and/or residents of a free and democratic society have (or ought to have), but
rather addresses only the rights of Parliamentarians sitting in Parliament as
against the Crown. In this respect, it differs substantially in form and intent
from other "bills of rights," including the first 10 amendments to the U.S.
Constitution, which are also known as the "Bill of Rights."
The basic tenets of the Bill of Rights 1689 are:
- Englishmen, as embodied by Parliament, possessed certain civil and
political rights that could not be taken away. 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 king
- freedom from a peace-time standing army, without agreement by Parliament
- freedom to bear arms for self-defence, 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
- freedom from fines and forfeitures without trial
- Roman Catholics could not be king or queen of England since "it hath been
found by experience that it is 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.
