Bill of rights

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A bill of rights is a list of the rights that are considered important and essential by a nation. The purpose of these bills is to protect those rights against infringement by the government. The term "bill of rights" originates from Great Britain, where it referred to a bill that was passed by Parliament in 1689.

An entrenched bill of rights exists as a separate instrument that falls outside of the normal jurisdiction of a country's legislative body. In many governments, an official legal bill of rights recognized in principle holds more authority than the legislative bodies alone. A bill of rights, on the other hand, may be weakened by subsequent acts passed by government, and they do not need an approval by vote to alter it.

An unentrenched bill of rights exists as a separate act that is presented by a legislative body. As such it can be changed or repealed by the body that created it. It is not as permanent as a constitutional bill of rights.

In other jurisdictions, the definition of rights may be statutory. In other words, it may be repealed just like any other law, and does not necessarily have greater weight than other laws. Not every jurisdiction enforces the protection of the rights articulated in its bill of rights.

Australia is the only Western country with neither a constitutional nor legislative bill of rights, although there is ongoing debate in many of Australia's states. Victoria and the Australian Capital Territory (ACT) are the only regions of the nation's states to have a human rights bill.

Contents 1 Criticisms 2 Important bills of rights 3 See also 4 References 5 External links

[edit] Criticisms

Bills of Rights have been argued against, for instance by the former Australian Prime Minister John Howard, as transferring power from elected politicians to unelected judges and bureaucrats.^[1][2] Under this view, a Bill of Rights is seen as unnecessary because the common law system and democracy have adequately protected human rights in Australia and comparable countries like the United Kingdom and Canada for hundreds of years before those countries introduced bills of rights. In essence, this view sees it as Parliament's duty to protect the people from the excesses of the Executive, rather than the Judiciary's duty to protect the people from the excesses of Parliament or the Executive.

[edit] Important bills of rights

• The Code of Hammurabi, a 4,000 year old document of laws and punishments that apply to every human being (and thus, vicarious freedoms) literally "set in stone." One of several similar codes from this period in the Middle East.
• Constitution of Ancient Athens, establishing the Athenian democracy, allowing elected leaders and separate branches of government written by Cleisthenes (508BC; Greece)
• Magna Carta (1215; England)
• Dušan's Code (1349; Serbia)
• Pacta Conventa (1573; Poland)
• Henrician Articles (1573; Poland)
• Petition of Right (1628; England)
• Bill of Rights 1689 (England) and Claim of Right Act 1689 (Scotland) 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 Statute of Westminster 1931
• Virginia Bill of Rights (June 1776)
• Preamble to the United States Declaration of Independence (July 1776)
• Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen (1789; France)
• United States Bill of Rights to the United States Constitution (completed in 1789, ratified in 1791)
• Constitution of Greece (1822; Epidaurus)
• Basic rights and liberties in Finland (1919)^{[citation needed]}
• Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948)
• Fundamental rights and duties of citizens in People's Republic of China (1949)
• European Convention on Human Rights (1950)
• Fundamental Rights of Indian citizens (1950)
• Implied Bill of Rights (a theory in Canadian constitutional law)
• Canadian Bill of Rights (1960)
• Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms (1982)
• Article 5 of the Constitution of Brazil (1988)
• New Zealand Bill of Rights Act (1990)
• Hong Kong Bills of Rights Ordinance (1991)
• Constitution of South Africa Chapter 2: Bill of Rights (1996)
• Human Rights Act 1998 (United Kingdom)
• Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union (2006)

[edit] See also

• Bill of Rights Defense Committee
• British Bill of Rights
• Civil rights
• Constitution of South Korea
• Consumer Bill of Rights
• U.S. Patients' Bill of Rights
• Taxpayer Bill of Rights
• Victims' Rights Amendment
• Voters' Bill of Rights
• Human rights
• Inalienable rights
• Natural rights

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• See transcript of the original U.S. Bill of Rights from the National Archives.
• Bill of Rights in various formats with audio.
• A New British Bill of Rights: The Case For
• Human Rights Act for Australia, Amnesty International Australia