Rights, Freedoms and Responsibilities of the Individual in Great Britain
Contents
Chapter 1 Historical Development of System of Human Rights in United Kingdom
1.1. Development of Human Rights in Kingdom of England from Manga Carta to Bill of Rights
1.2. Development of System of Human Rights in XVIII – XX Centuries
References

Historical Development of System of Human Rights in United Kingdom

The origin of human rights law extends back to the beginning of Western civilization, to the Greeks and the Romans. Much of what we now consider modern human rights law can be found in the basis of fundamental rights widely recognized by Greek and Roman lawyers. Natural law, or what the Romans called “ius natural”, was a central theme of Roman political and legal thinking. When Saint Paul said, “Yes, I am [a Roman citizen],” he was insisting on those fundamental rights to which, as a Roman citizen, he was entitled. One distinction between Saint Paul’s statement and human rights today, of course, is that in Saint Paul’s time, only Roman citizens could enjoy fundamental human rights. It is important to be aware, however, that these ideas were not all concocted in the twenty-first century. They have been around a long time and have been elaborated on over the centuries by critical notions of Christian, Islamic, and Judaic teaching. In the times since the Greeks and the Romans, major developments in human rights law have also had an enormous impact on human rights in England. Thus, began the dawn of development of human rights.
Almost 800 years ago, on 15 June 1215, in a field close to the River Thames at Runnymede, King John I of England attached his Great Seal to a document drawn up by a group of the country’s leading noblemen, collectively unhappy that their rights were being ignored by the monarch. It was the first draft of one of the most important and influential legal charters known to civilisation – what history would term the Magna Carta.
Universally acknowledged as the first proclamation that the subjects of the crown had legal rights and that the monarch – then indistinguishable from the state – could be bound by the law, the Magna Carta became the first document to set out the right of habeas corpus and establish a tradition of civil rights in United Kingdom that still exists today.
The Magna Carta (1215)
Magna Carta, or “Great Charter,” signed by the King of England in 1215, was a turning point in human rights.
The Magna Carta, or “Great Charter,” was arguably the most significant early influence on the extensive historical process that led to the human right legal provision today in the world.
In 1215, after King John of England violated a number of ancient laws and customs by which England had been governed, his subjects forced him to sign the Magna Carta, which enumerates what later came to be thought of as human rights. Among them was the right of the church to be free from governmental interference, the rights of all free citizens to own and inherit property and to be protected from excessive taxes. It established the right of widows who owned property to choose not to remarry, and established principles of due process and equality before the law. It also contained provisions forbidding bribery and official misconduct.
Widely viewed as one of the most important legal documents in the development of modern democracy, the Magna Carta was a crucial turning point in the struggle to establish freedom. The Charter was revised several times until a version released in 1297 was confirmed by King Edward I and passed into English law. This version, with the long title (originally in Latin) ‘The Great Charter of the Liberties of England, and of the Liberties of the Forest’, remains on the statute books of England and Wales.
However, only three of the original chapters in Magna Carta are still law in parts of the United Kingdom. One chapter defends the freedom and rights of the English church, and another confirms the liberties and customs of London and other towns.
“FIRST, We have granted to God, and by this our present Charter have confirmed, for Us and our Heirs for ever, that the Church of England shall be free, and shall have all her whole Rights and Liberties inviolable. We have granted also, and given to all the Freemen of our Realm, for Us and our Heirs for ever, these Liberties under-written, to have and to hold to them and their Heirs, of Us and our Heirs for ever.”
“THE City of London shall have all the old Liberties and Customs which it hath been used to have. Moreover, We will and grant, that all other Cities, Boroughs, Towns, and the Barons of the Five Ports, as with all other Ports, shall have all their Liberties and free Customs.”
But the third is the best-known and most significant:
“NO Freeman shall be taken or imprisoned, or be disseised of his Freehold, or Liberties, or free Customs, or be outlawed, or exiled, or any other wise destroyed; nor will We not pass upon him, nor condemn him, but by lawful judgment of his Peers, or by the Law of the land. We will sell to no man, we will not deny or defer to any man either Justice or Right.”
This chapter sets out the rights of people under the law and the crucial and implicit notion of the overall authority of the law. By establishing that no person, not even the king, was above the rule of law, Magna Carta restricted the absolute power of the monarch and set out the limits and scope of state authority. This made a vitally important contribution to the development of constitutionalism, the concept that a government rules within the bounds of a constitution.
Buried deep within Magna Carta, this chapter was given no particular prominence in 1297. However, its longevity has been ensured because its intrinsic adaptability has allowed succeeding generations to reinterpret it for their own purposes. In the 14th century, the English Parliament interpreted it to mean the guarantee of trial by jury. In the 17th century, the judge and parliamentarian Sir Edward Coke used it as a foundation of his declaration of civil liberties, the Petition of Right, passed by Parliament to curb the worst excesses of King Charles I.
In the 18th century, Magna Carta inspired the convention drawing up the United States Constitution and Bill of Rights. In more recent years, the spirit of Magna Carta has been enshrined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
Petition of Right (1628)
In 1628 the English Parliament sent this statement of civil liberties to King Charles I.
The next recorded milestone in the development of human rights was the Petition of Right, produced in 1628 by the English Parliament and sent to Charles I as a statement of civil liberties. Refusal by Parliament to finance the king’s unpopular foreign policy had caused his government to exact forced loans and to quarter troops in subjects’ houses as an economy measure. Arbitrary arrest and imprisonment for opposing these policies had produced in Parliament a violent hostility to Charles and to George Villiers, the Duke of Buckingham. The Petition of Right, initiated by Sir Edward Coke, was based upon earlier statutes and charters and asserted four principles: (1) No taxes may be levied without consent of Parliament, (2) No subject may be imprisoned without cause shown (reaffirmation of the right of habeas corpus), (3) No soldiers may be quartered upon the citizenry, and (4) Martial law may not be used in time of peace.
Magna Carta led directly to the first Bill of Rights in history, which Britain passed in 1689 and which codified the civil and political rights of all men, not just the lords and barons. It granted freedom from taxation by royal prerogative, freedom to petition the monarch, freedom to elect members of parliament without interference, freedom of speech and of parliamentary privilege, freedom from cruel and unusual punishments and freedom from "fine and forfeiture" without trial.
It ingrained a strong tradition of civil liberties in Britain, so much so that it was never considered necessary to have a formal, written constitution.
It would also form the basis of the US Constitution in 1797 and, two years later, the Declaration of the Rights of Man, issued at the start of the French Revolution.
Magna Carta, to which U.S. judges and lawyers have always attached such great importance, made a considerable contribution to the notion of fundamental rights. According to Magna Carta, “[n] o man shall be punished except by the judgment of his peers or the law of the land.., to none should justice be denied”. Then follows the familiar phrase, “due process of law should be observed”. Most U.S. lawyers, even academics, tend to give the impression that the phrase "due process" is a U.S. invention. Although discussion of due process of law today most commonly occurs in the context of constitutional theory, many of its fundamental principles actually originated in Magna Carta, which laid the foundation centuries ago. In the United Kingdom, these ideas from Magna Carta, as well as from the Greeks and the Romans, have been developed over the centuries. In seventeenth-century England, for instance, notions of due process were incorporated into the English Bill of Rights, which along with Magna Carta, continues to be cited in the courts today. In a recent appeal before the Privy Council, five Jamaican men sentenced to death by hanging initially claimed that they were wrongfully convicted, and subsequently appealed the constitutionality of the death sentence itself. On a third appeal, they accepted their guilt as well as the constitutionality of the death sentence, but alleged that the method of the sentence's execution constituted a form of cruel and inhuman punishment contrary to both Magna Carta and the English Bill of Rights. Unfortunately for the men in this case, Magna Carta has been subject to subsequent parliamentary statutes identifying death by hanging as the only means of execution in Jamaica.'" Thus, though Magna Carta did not do any good for the men in this case, its appearance does provide some insight into just how far back such thinking can be traced.
In addition to native English ideas, human rights declarations in other countries have also influenced the development of human rights in the United Kingdom. The almost universal impact of the Declaration of the Rights of Man," approved by the National Assembly of France in 1789, provides a case in point.
Bill of Rights of 1689
The 1689 English Bill of Rights was a British Law, passed by the Parliament of Great Britain in 1689 that declared the rights and liberties of the people and settling the succession in William III and Mary II following the Glorious Revolution of 1688 when James II was deposed.
The 1689 English Bill of Rights had a massive influence on the colonies in North America and the Constitution of the United States. The most important Articles of the 1689 English Bill of Rights are as follows:
• A frequently summoned Parliament and free elections
• Members should have freedom of speech in Parliament
• No armies should be raised in peacetime
• No taxes could be levied, without the authority of parliament
• Laws should not be dispensed with, or suspended, without the consent of parliament
• No excessive fines should imposed, nor cruel and unusual punishments inflicted
The important articles in the English Bill of Rights are the following:
-Articles 1 and 2: Laws should not be dispensed with, or suspended, without the consent of parliament
-Articles 4 and 6: No armies should be raised in peace time and no taxes levied, without the authority of parliament
-Articles 13 and 8: Parliament should be frequently summoned and that there should be free elections
-Article 9: Members and Peers should be able to speak and act freely in Parliament
-Articles 10: Excessive bail ought not to be required, nor excessive fines imposed, nor cruel and unusual punishments inflicted
The 1689 English Bill of Rights is one of the two great historic documents which regulate the relations between the Crown and the people, the other document being the 1215 Magna Carta of England. The Magna Carta started the process of establishing the principal basis human rights by:
• Limiting the powers of the king
• Laying the basis for due process of law that should be known and orderly (which led to Trial by Jury)
• Prohibiting the king from taking property or taxes without consent of the Great Council
The 1689 English Bill of Rights enhanced the right to all by:
• Guaranteeing free elections and frequent meetings of Parliament
• Giving English people the right to complain to the king or queen in Parliament (Free Speech)
• Forbidding excessive fines and cruel punishment
• Establishing representative government with laws made by a group that acts for the people http://www.landofthebrave.info/bill-of-rights-1689.htm
http://www.humanrights.com/what-are-human-rights/brief-history/magna-carta.html