Comparison of Bill of Rights

The purpose of this research is to examine the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in comparison to the British Bill of Rights, the French Bill of Rights, and the U.S. Bill of Rights. The plan of the research will be to set forth the historical context in which these various declarations of human rights emerged, and then to discuss the ways in which the philosophical trends that helped to create the Universal Declaration of Human Rights emerged.

The chronology of these bills of rights and the historical frame in which they developed are easily identified. The British Bill of Rights was established in 1689, as a fundamental part of the socalled Glorious Revolution in England. The American and French Bills of Rights emerged next, and chronologically quite close to each other. The French Bill of Rights, which is also known as the Declaration of the Rights of Man, was promulgated in August 1789, following by only a few months the March 1789 ratification of the U.S. Constitution, but preceding by more than two years the ultimate November 1791 ratification of the U.S. Bill of Rights; the amendments that became the Bill of Rights were, however, before the Congress and the first thirteen states in early 1789. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights was established by the General Assembly of the United Nations in 1948, in the early years of the U.N. and in the wake of World War II.

What all the bills of rights cited here share is a climate of assertion of options against th

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the political "experiment" could be made to work and the American system survive, particularly if, as Jefferson believed, it could be manifest in a Bill of Rights attached to the American Constitution, then the United States would emerge as a model for national political liberty around the world. "No [political] experiment," said Jefferson, "can be more interesting than that we are now trying, and which we trust will end in establishing the fact, that man may be governed by reason and truth. Our first object should therefore be, to leave open to him all the avenues to truth" (6:222). Jefferson goes on to make the point that freedom of the press is fundamental to this object, and of course that is contained in the first amendment of the Bill of Rights. This principle is incorporated into the Universal Declaration of Human Rights as well. The idea of individual option as against the capriciousness of government control is the basis for the American and French Bills of Rights. This idea shows an appeal to reason instead of royal option as the basis for a theory of government. The U.S. Bill of Rights in particular constituted a direct and programmatic departure from European forms of government in which (for example), the prevaili

Category: Government - C