you are here: > Self > 22. LEX
 
22.17
Legal History 1790 - 1920
  
     
  Whereas the Magna Carta represents a signpost out of the darkness, the Declaration of Independence represents still the single greatest legal document in terms of human rights and fair law ever conceived in human history.  
 
 Key legal concept: Declaration of Independence July 4, 1776
Architect
Thomas Jefferson, edits by Benjamin Franklin and then signed by representatives of 13 colonies.
Main influence
 Philosophy of Locke
Idea
 We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed, by their Creator, with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness.
 
  The Declaration of Independence is the first document to explicitly state as the basis of forming a sovereign nation, that all individuals have certain inalienable rights and are created equal.  
  Never before, or since have such powerful and controversial words been written. Rightly, or wrongly, the impact of this document and the forces it accelerated both for democracy and human justice and those deadly opposed to such rights, most notably the Roman Catholic Church have resulted in virtually every single major conflict over the past two hundred years.  
  Unfortunately, in spite of the powerful rhetoric of the Declaration of Independence, the same sentiments did no translate themselves in either eloquence, nor wisdom in the general forging of the United States Constitution, which remains to all purposes a document promoting elitist power and a disenfranchised population, regardless of the Bill of Rights.  
     
     
 
<<Back       Continue>>
 

Copyright © 2010 UCADIA. All rights reserved.