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Period: Jan 1, 1000 to
Common Law
Common law, also known as case law, is law developed by judges through decisions of courts and similar tribunals rather than through legislative statutes or executive branch action. A "common law system" is a legal system that gives great precedential weight to common law, on the principle that it is unfair to treat similar facts differently on different occasions. -
Jan 1, 1215
Magna Carta Signed
This was the first document forced on to an English King by a group of his subjects in attempt to limit his power law and protect their priviledges. -
Jan 1, 1265
Parliament Established
This was a legislature of the kingdom of England. The king was not allowed to levy or collect any taxes eventually it devoloped into the parliament. -
Period: Jan 1, 1500 to
Seperation of Powers
The separation of powers, is a model for the governance of both democratic and federative states.Under this model, the state is divided into branches, each with separate and independent powers and areas of responsibility so that no one branch has more power than the other branches. -
Period: Sep 30, 1500 to
Iroquois Confederation
This is a sophisticated political and social system. It united the territories of five nations that stretched across the present day New York. -
Period: to
Colonial Legislatures
By creating legislatures in the colonies, Americans were simply copying the governmental structure they lived under in England. The colonial legislatures were modeled on the English Parliament. -
Mayflower Compact Signed
This is the first democratic document that was written in America, declaring the pilgrims to be their own democratic commonwealth. It was signed by 41 adult males, 11 of them with the exalted rank of "mister", promising to step toward a genuine government. -
Period: to
New England Confederation Approved
The United Colonies of New England, commonly known as the New England Confederation, was a political and military alliance of the English colonies of Massachusetts, Plymouth, Connecticut, and New Haven. Established May 29, 1643, its primary purpose was to unite the Puritan colonies against the Native Americans. -
Thomas Hobbes - Leviathan
The book concerns the structure of society and legimate government and is regarded as one of the earliest most influencial examples of social contract theory. -
English Bill of Rights Established
The Bill of Rights is the name by which the first ten amendments to the United States Constitution are known. They were introduced by James Madison to the First United States Congress in 1789 as a series of legislative articles, and came into effect as Constitutional Amendments on December 15, 1791, when they had been ratified by three-fourths of the States. -
Period: to
John Locke - Two Treatises of Government
Two Treatises of Governmentis a work of political philosophy published anonymously in 1689 by John Locke. The First Treatise attacks patriarchalism in the form of sentence-by-sentence refutation of Robert Filmer's Patriarcha and the Second Treatise outlines a theory of political or civil society based on natural rights and contract theory. -
Period: to
Enlightment
The Enlightment is the era in Western philosophy and intellectual, scientific, and cultural life, centered upon the 18th century, in which reason was advocated as the primary source for legitimacy and authority. -
Period: to
Baron De Montesque - On the Spirit of Laws
Baron De Montesque was a French social commentator and political thinker who lived during the Enlightenment. He is famous for his articulation of the theory of separation of powers, taken for granted in modern discussions of government and implemented in many constitutions throughout the world. -
Adopted Albany Plan of Union
In June 1754 delegates from most of the northern colonies and representatives from the Six Iroquois Nations met in Albany, New York. There they adopted a "plan of union" drafted by Benjamin Franklin of Pennsylvania. Under this plan each colonial legislature would elect delegates to an American continental assembly presided over by a royal governor. -
Jean Jacque Rousseau - The Social Contract
Jean Jacques Rousseau was a major philosopher, writer, and composer of 18th-century Romanticism. His political philosophy heavily influenced the French Revolution, as well as the American Revolution and the overall development of modern political, sociological and educational thought. -
Period: to
Sir John Blackstone - Commentaries on the Laws of England
The Commentaries were long regarded as the leading work on the development of English law and played a role in the development of the American legal system. They were in fact the first methodical treatise on the common law suitable for a lay readership since at least the Middle Ages. -
Period: to
First Continental Congress meets
The First Continental Congress was a convention of delegates from twelve of the thirteen North American colonies that met on September 5, 1774, at Carpenters' Hall in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, early in the American Revolution. -
Second Continental Congress meets
The Second Continental Congress was a convention of delegates from the Thirteen Colonies that met beginning on May 10, 1775, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, soon after warfare in the American Revolutionary War. The second Congress managed the colonial war effort, and moved incrementally towards independence. -
Declaration of Independance
The United States Declaration of Independence is a statement adopted by the Continental Congress on July 4, 1776, which announced that the thirteen American colonies then at war with Great Britain were now independent states, and thus no longer a part of the British Empire. -
Article of Confederation
The Articles of Confederation was the first constitution of the United States of America and specified how the national government was to operate. The Second Continental Congress appointed a committee to draft the Articles in June 1776 and sent the draft to the states for ratification in November 1777. -
Written Constitutions
Our constitutionis a set of laws that a set of people have made and agreed upon for government often as a written document that limits the powers and functions of a political entity. -
Period: to
Ratification of The Constitution
Article VII of the Constitution and resolutions adopted by the convention on September 17, 1787, detailed a four-stage ratification process: (1) submission of the Constitution to the Confederation Congress, (2) transmission of the Constitution by Congress to the state legislatures, (3) election of delegates to conventions in each state to consider the Constitution, and (4) ratification by the conventions of at least nine of the thirteen states. -
Constitutional Convention Meets
The united states constitution was written in 1787 but it did not take effect until it was ratified in 1789. It remains the basic law of federal government. -
Bill of Rights
The Bill of Rights is the name by which the first ten amendments to the United States Constitution are known. They were introduced by James Madison to the First United States Congress in 1789 as a series of legislative articles, and came into effect as Constitutional Amendments on December 15, 1791, when they had been ratified by three-fourths of the States.
