Bill of Rights

Impact

With the introduction and acceptance of the Bill of Rights as the first ten amendments to the U.S. Constitution, a new “rights regime” was created, in which the power and reach of the government would be limited by guaranteed rights that belonged to persons living in the United States. The facts that the government would be bound by the rule of law and that citizens and others had codified rights protecting them against the government constituted a bold experiment. Indeed, the Bill of Rights utterly transformed the style and scope of government in the United States and has had a profound impact throughout the world. Other nations followed the United States in enumerating such rights, and in modern times an international human rights movement has ensured that nascent international codes and laws, such as those of the European Union, have become rights based and limited in scope and authority. Thus, the Bill of Rights had a profound impact in its day and continues to have such an impact in the modern day.