British Common Law and English Bill of Rights (1689)

• British Bill of Rights (1689)
  • Attempt to disarm protestants --- presented to William and Mary
  • Claimed to 'restore' ancient rights; did not create anything;
  • Inspired US Bill of Rights; included:
    • No royal interference with the rule of law
    • "grants and promises of fines or forfeitures" before conviction are void
    • no excessive bail or "cruel and unusual" punishments may be imposed
    • Citizens have a right to bear arms because citizens have a duty to bear arms and serve the common defense (Locke)

Blackstone's "Commentaries on The Laws of England" (1765) re the British Bill of Rights of 1689 :

But in vain would these rights [e.g. free speech] be declared, ascertained, and protected by the dead letter of the law, if the constitution had provided no other method to secure their actual enjoyment. It has, therefore, established other auxiliary subordinate rights of the subject, which serve principally as outworks or barriers, to protect and maintain inviolate the three great and primary rights, of personal security, personal liberty, and private property.

• These principle rights should sound awfully familiar. A bit later:

And lastly, to vindicate these rights, when actually violated or attacked, the subjects of England are entitled, in the first place, to the regular administration and free course of justice in the courts of law; next, to the right of petitioning the king and parliament for redress of grievances, and, lastly, to the right of having and using arms for self-preservation and defense.

• Practically a blueprint for Declaration of Independence;
  • Checks off Colonists attempts to address their grievances;
  • Turns to raising arms against the king as the final resort;
  • Exhausted all peaceful mechanisms;
  • Our system built to same plan:
•  Armed resistance against tyranny is directly a purpose of RTKBA;
  • IF AND ONLY IF pursued at absolute and utter end of means.
  • Neither free license to insurrection nor was it paranoia;
  • Built directly on experiences of Colonists under England;
  • Enjoyed extensive legal protection of 'Constitutional rights' as British subjects which Crown trampled and ignored by "repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny."
• Note: Blackstone a royalist: believed in monarchy and authority of kings
  • Locke, Payne, others rejected hereditary power
  • Took others to restore debate to republican context (e.g. Bastiat, "The Law", circa 1850)