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.
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