Bill of Rights 1689
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Jump to: navigation, search Bill of Rights 1689 | Parliament of England | Long title | An Act Declaring the Rights and Liberties of the Subject and Settling the Succession of the Crown. | Chapter | 1 William & Mary Sess 2 c 2 | Status: Amended | Revised text of statute as amended |

The Bill of Rights | The Bill of Rights (1688 or 1689) | Created | 1689 | Ratified | December 16, 1689 | Location | National Archives of the United Kingdom | Author(s) | Parliament of England | Purpose | Ensure certain freedoms and ensure a Protestant political supremacy. |
The Bill of Rights[1] is an Act of the Parliament of England passed on 16 December 1689.[2] It was a restatement in statutory form of the Declaration of Right presented by the Convention Parliament to William and Mary in March 1689 (or 1688 by Old Style dating), inviting them to become joint sovereigns of England. It lays down limits on the powers of the crown and sets out the rights of Parliament and rules for freedom of speech in Parliament, the requirement for regular elections to Parliament and the right to petition the monarch without fear of retribution. It reestablished the liberty of Protestants to have arms for their defence within the rule of law, and condemned James II of England for "causing several good subjects being Protestants to be disarmed at the same time when papists were both armed and employed contrary to law".
These ideas about rights reflected those of the political thinker John Locke and they quickly became popular in England. It also sets out—or, in the view of its drafters, restates—certain constitutional requirements of the Crown to seek the consent of the people, as represented in Parliament.
Along with the Act of Settlement 1701, the Bill of Rights is still in effect. It is one of the main constitutional laws governing the succession to the throne of the United Kingdom and—following British colonialism, the resultant doctrine of reception, and independence—to the thrones of those other Commonwealth realms, by willing deference to the Act as a British statute or as a patriated part of the particular realm's constitution.[3] Since the implementation of the Statute of Westminster 1931 in each of the Commonwealth realms (on successive dates from 1931 onwards) the Bill of Rights cannot be altered in any realm except by that realm's own parliament, and then, by convention, and as it touches on the succession to the shared throne, only with the consent of all the other realms.[4]
In the United Kingdom, the Bill of Rights is further accompanied by the Magna Carta, the Petition of Right, Habeas Corpus Act 1679, Parliament Acts 1911 and 1949 and the Human Rights Act 1998 as some of the basic documents of the uncodified British constitution.[5] A separate but similar document, the Claim of Right Act, applies in Scotland. The Bill of Rights (1688 or 1689) was one of the inspirations for the United States Bill of Rights.[6]
Provisions of the Act[edit]
The Bill of Rights laid out certain basic rights for (at the time) all Englishmen. The Act set out that there should be: * no royal interference with the law. Though the sovereign remains the fount of justice, he or she cannot unilaterally establish new courts or act as a judge. * no taxation by Royal Prerogative. The agreement of the parliament became necessary for the implementation of any new taxes * freedom to petition the monarch without fear of retribution * no standing army may be maintained during a time of peace without the consent of parliament.[7] * no royal interference in the freedom of the people to have arms for their own defence as suitable to their class and as allowed by law (simultaneously restoring rights previously taken from Protestants by James II) * no royal interference in the election of members of parliament * the freedom of speech and debates or proceedings in Parliament ought not to be impeached or questioned in any court or place out of Parliament * "grants and promises of fines or forfeitures" before conviction are void * no excessive bail or "cruel and unusual" punishments may be imposed
Certain acts of James II were also specifically named and declared illegal by the Bill of Rights, while James' flight from England in the wake of the Glorious Revolution was also declared to be an abdication of the throne.
Also, in a prelude to the Act of Settlement to come twelve years later, the Bill of Rights barred Roman Catholics from the throne of England as "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"; thus William III and Mary II were named as the successors of James VII and II and that the throne would pass from them first to Mary's heirs, then to her sister, Princess Anne of Denmark and her heirs and, further, to any heirs of William by a later marriage. The monarch was further required to swear a coronation oath to maintain the Protestant religion