-
Jun 15, 1215
The Magna Carta
The 1215 Charter required King John of England to proclaim certain liberties, For example by explicitly accepting that no "freeman" could be punished except through the law of the land. -
The decline of Absolutism and the rise of Constitutionalism
Constitutionalism:A complex of ideas, attitudes, and patterns of behavior elaborating the principle that the authority of government derives from and is limited by a body of fundamental law
Absolutionism: A form of government where the monarch has the power to rule their land freely, with no laws or legally organized direct opposition in force. -
The Age of Enlightenment
The Age of Enlightenment (or simply the Enlightenment or Age of Reason) was an elite cultural movement of intellectuals in 18th century Europe that sought to mobilize the power of reason in order to reform society and advance knowledge. It promoted intellectual interchange and opposed intolerance and abuses in Church and state. -
Lockes "Natural Rights"
According to Locke there are three natural rights: Life: everyone is entitled to live once they are created.
Liberty: everyone is entitled to do anything they want to so long as it doesn't conflict with the first right.
Estate: everyone is entitled to own all they create or gain through gift or trade so long as it doesn't conflict with the first two rights.
The social contract is a contract between a being or beings of power and their people or followers. The King makes the laws to protect the -
The Declaration of Independance
The declaration that announced that the thirteen American colonies then at war with Great Britain regarded themselves as independent states, and no longer a part of the British Empire -
Jean-Jaques Rosseau
His political philosophy heavily influenced the French Revolution, as well as the overall development of modern political, sociological, and educational thought. -
Voltaire
French Enlightenment writer, historian and philosopher famous for his wit and for his advocacy of civil liberties, including freedom of religion, free trade and separation of church and state. Voltaire was a prolific writer, producing works in almost every literary form, including plays, poetry, novels, essays, and historical and scientific works. He wrote more than 20,000 letters and more than 2,000 books and pamphlets. He was an outspoken supporter of social reform, despite strict censorship l -
American Bill of Rights
The Bill of Rights is the collective name for the first ten amendments to the United States Constitution, which limit the power of the U.S. federal government. These limitations serve to protect the natural rights of liberty and property including freedoms of religion, speech, a free press, free assembly, and free association, as well as the right to keep and bear arms. -
Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen
Defines the individual and collective rights of all the estates of the realm as universal. Influenced by the doctrine of natural right, the rights of man are universal: valid at all times and in every place, pertaining to human nature itself. Equality is the prevailing right in this declaration. -
The United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights
The Declaration arose directly from the experience of the Second World War and represents the first global expression of rights to which all human beings are inherently entitled. It consists of 30 articles which have been elaborated in subsequent international treaties, regional human rights instruments, national constitutions and laws. -
Canadian Bill of Rights
The Canadian Bill of Rights is a federal statute and bill of rights enacted by Prime Minister John Diefenbaker's government on August 10, 1960. It provides Canadians with certain quasi-constitutional rights in relation to other federal statutes. It was the earliest expression of human rights law at the federal level in Canada, though an Implied Bill of Rights had already been recognized. The Canadian Bill of Rights remains in effect, but its widely acknowledged ineffectiveness was the main -
Convention of the Rights of a Child
A human rights treaty setting out the civil, political, economic, social, health and cultural rights of children. The Convention generally defines a child as any human being under the age of eighteen, unless an earlier age of majority is recognized by a country's law.