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 An entrenched bill of rights cannot be amended or repealed by a country's legislature through regular procedure, instead requiring a supermajority or referendum; often it is part of a country's constitution, and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.
The 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]
The 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]
| Title | data-sort-type="number" | Effective Year | Realm | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1100 | England | Rights of inheritance and marriage, amnesty, and environmental protection | ||
| Magna Carta | 1215 | England | Rights for barons | |
| 1216 | Rights for barons | |||
| Golden Bull of 1222 | 1222 | Hungary | Rights for nobles | |
| 1264 | Poland | Jewish residents' rights | ||
| 1312 | Rights for all citizens "rich and poor" | |||
| Dušan's Code | 1349 | Serbia | ||
| 1525 | Swabian League | |||
| Pacta conventa | 1573 | Poland–Lithuania | ||
| Henrician Articles | 1573 | Poland–Lithuania | ||
| 1628 | ||||
| Declaration of Right, 1689 Bill of Rights 1689 Claim of Right Act 1689 | 1689 | This applied to all British Colonies of the time, and was later entrenched in the laws of those colonies that became nations—for instance in Australia with the Colonial Laws Validity Act 1865 and reconfirmed by the Statute of Westminster 1931 | ||
| 1776 | June 1776, Preamble to the United States Declaration of Independence, July 1776 | |||
| 1776 | July 1776[21] | |||
| Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen | 1789 | |||
| 1791 | Completed in 1789, ratified in 1791 | |||
| Declaration of the Rights of the People | 1811 | Venezuela | ||
| 1818 | ||||
| Constitution of Greece | 1822 | |||
| Hatt-ı Hümayun | 1856 | |||
| Article I of the Constitution of Texas | 1875 | |||
| Basic rights and liberties in Finland | 1919 | |||
| Implied Bill of Rights (a theory in Canadian constitutional law) | 1938 | The bill of rights implied by the Constitution Act, 1867, first identified in Reference Re Alberta Statutes in 1938. | ||
| Articles 13-28 of the Constitution of Italy | 1947 | |||
| Saskatchewan Bill of Rights | 1947 | First bill of rights adopted in the British Empire / Commonwealth since the English Bill of Rights | ||
| Universal Declaration of Human Rights | 1948 | |||
| Fundamental rights and duties of citizens in People's Republic of China | 1949 | |||
| Fundamental Rights of Indian citizens | 1950 | |||
| 1953 | Drafted in 1950 | |||
| Part II of the Constitution of Malaysia | 1957 | (until 1963)/ (since 1963) | ||
| Canadian Bill of Rights | 1960 | |||
| Part I of the Constitution of Portugal | 1976 | |||
| 1976 | ||||
| Quebec Charter of Human Rights and Freedoms | 1976 | |||
| Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms | 1982 | |||
| Article III and XIII of the Constitution of the Philippines | 1987 | The Bill of Rights encapsulating Article III regulates duties and responsibilities of the government toward the rights of citizens, while Article XIII is specifically about human rights and social justice | ||
| Article 5 of the Constitution of Brazil | 1988 | |||
| New Zealand Bill of Rights Act | 1990 | |||
| Charter of Fundamental Rights and Basic Freedoms of the Czech Republic | 1991 | |||
| Hong Kong Bill of Rights Ordinance | 1991 | |||
| Chapter 2 of the Constitution of South Africa | 1996 | Entitled "Bill of Rights" | ||
| Human Rights Act 1998 | 1998 | |||
| Human Rights Act 2004 | 2004 | |||
| Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union | 2005 | |||
| Charter of Human Rights and Responsibilities Act 2006 | 2006 | |||
| Chapter Four of the Constitution of Zimbabwe | 2013 | |||
| Queensland Human Rights Act 2018 | 2019 |