Rights of Englishmen
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| Theoretical distinctions |
| Human rights |
| Rights by beneficiary |
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The "rights of Englishmen" are the traditional rights of English subjects and later English-speaking subjects of the British Crown.
In the 18th century, some of the
Historical background
In the tradition of
In a legal case that came to be known as
Legacy in United States law
The American colonies had since the 17th century been fertile ground for liberalism within the center of European political discourse.[10] However, as the ratification of the Declaration of Independence approached, the issue among the colonists of which particular rights were significant became divisive. George Mason, one of the Founding Fathers of the United States, stated that "We claim nothing but the liberty and privileges of Englishmen in the same degree, as if we had continued among our brethren in Great Britain."[4]
Owing to its inclusion in the standard legal treatises of the 19th century,
The Supreme Court Justice Joseph P. Bradley asserted that the "rights of Englishmen" were a foundation of American law in his dissenting opinion on the Slaughter-House Cases, the first Supreme Court interpretation of the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution, in 1873.[b]
See also
- Civil and political rights
- Civil liberties in the United Kingdom
- First Charter of Virginia
- Natural and legal rights
- Parliament in the Making
- Roman citizenship
- English Bill of Rights
Notes
- ^ Compiled by Edward Coke, William Blackstone, and James Kent.
- ^ In his dissenting decision, Bradley wrote:
The people of this country brought with them to its shores the rights of Englishmen, the rights which had been wrested from English sovereigns at various periods of the nation's history.... England has no written constitution, it is true, but it has an unwritten one, resting in the acknowledged, and frequently declared, privileges of Parliament and the people, to violate which in any material respect would produce a revolution in an hour. A violation of one of the fundamental principles of that constitution in the Colonies, namely, the principle that recognizes the property of the people as their own, and which, therefore, regards all taxes for the support of government as gifts of the people through their representatives, and regards taxation without representation as subversive of free government, was the origin of our own revolution.
References
- ^ Zuckert (2003).
- ^ Tindall (1984), p. 176.
- ^ Swindler (1976).
- ^ a b Miller (1959).
- ^ a b Blackstone, Fundamental Laws of England, the first part of Commentaries on the Laws of England, pp. 123–24. Scanned in text available at Yale Law School Libraries online. Retrieved 26 August 2010.
- ISBN 9780814725177.
- ^ Price (1997).
- ^ a b Hulsebosch (2003).
- ^ Pearson (2005).
- ^ Heale (1986).
- ^ Price (1997), pp. 138–39.
Citations
- Aptheker, Herbert (1960). The American Revolution, 1763–1783: a history of the American people: an interpretation. ISBN 978-0-7178-0005-6. Retrieved 2 August 2010.
It is true that the colonists had insisted that they were seeking "the rights of Englishmen", but insisting upon this in the face of rulers who declare that colonists do not have such rights is revolutionary, though the rights themselves might not be new.
- Heale, M. J. (1986). The American Revolution. ISBN 978-0-416-38910-4. Retrieved 2 August 2010.
- Hulsebosch, Daniel J. (2003). "The Ancient Constitution and the Expanding Empire: Sir Edward Coke's British Jurisprudence". S2CID 232399735. Archived from the originalon 29 August 2012. Retrieved 21 May 2012.
- Miller, John Chester (1959). Origins of the American Revolution (2nd ed.). ISBN 978-0-8047-0593-6. Retrieved 2 August 2010.
As long as the rights of Englishmen remained the goal, most Americans warmly supported the patriot leaders; when the rights of Americans and independence Great Britain were put forward, the colonists began to divide into hostile camps.
- Pearson, Ellen Holmes (2005). "Revising Custom, Embracing Choice: Early American Legal Scholars and the Republicanization of Common Law". In Gould, Eliga H.; Onuf, Peter S. (eds.). Empire And Nation: The American Revolution In The Atlantic World. Baltimore: ISBN 0-8018-7912-4. Retrieved 21 May 2012.
- Price, Polly J. (1997). "Natural Law and Birthright Citizenship in Calvin's Case (1608)". Yale Journal of Law & the Humanities. 9: 73.
- Slavin, Arthur J. (January 1983). "Craw v. Ramsey: New Light on an Old Debate". In Baxter, Stephen Bartow (ed.). England's Rise to Greatness, 1660–1763. ISBN 9780520045729. Retrieved 21 May 2012.
- Swindler, William F. (May 1976). ""Rights of Englishmen" Since 1776: Some Anglo-American Notes". JSTOR 3311594.
- Tindall, George Brown (1984). America: a narrative history. New York: Norton. ISBN 9780393954357.
- constitutional custom'.)
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