A Bill of Rights is a list or summary of rights that are considered important and essential by a group of peoples. The purpose of these bills is to protect those against infringement by the government. The term "bill of rights" originates from 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 As such it can be changed or repealed by the body that created it.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. A constitutional bill cannot be changed except with the approval of that country's voting public.

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 In other words, it may be repealed just like any other law, and does not necessarily have greater weight than other laws.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 debate for the creation of such a bill is ongoing in many states.^[1]

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.
• Cyrus Cylinder Allowing freedom of religion and abolishment of slavery (559-530 BC; Persian Empire/Iran)
• 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)
• Pacta Conventa (1573; Poland)
• Henrician Articles (1573; Poland)
• Bill of Rights 1689 (England) and Claim of Right Act 1689 (Scotland)
• 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)
• 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)
• Artigo Quinto 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)

See also

• British Bill of Rights
• Natural rights
• Civil rights
• Inalienable rights
• Human rights
• United States Bill of Rights
• Bill of Rights Defense Committee
• Constitution of South Korea

References

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

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Source: adapted by the editor from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia; from the article "Bill of rights". Image Credit.

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