English Bill of Rights

Questions for Further Study

• 1.: At about the same time as the English Bill of Rights came out, John Locke published the Second Treatise on Civil Government. Read the two documents in conjunction with each other. How do they each reflect prevailing attitudes toward civil rights, the position of the monarchy, and similar issues?
• 2.: Summarize the political events in England that gave rise to the English Bill of Rights.
• 3.: Examine the time line associated with the English Bill of Rights. As an exercise in “what if,” imagine that one of the events leading up to the passage of the Bill of Rights had not taken place or had turned out radically different. What impact do you think this change in historical circumstances might have had on the development of civil rights in England?
• 4.: Trace the development of Western concepts of civil rights from the Magna Carta through the Habeas Corpus Act of the Restoration and the English Bill of Rights to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Have concepts of civil rights changed? Have they remained consistent? Explain.
• 5.: What impact did the English Bill of Rights have on the U.S. Constitution?