Editing Bill of Rights 1689 (section)

==Amendments and legacy==
{{See also|Glorious Revolution#Legacy|Declaration of Right, 1689#Results}}
The Bill of Rights was later supplemented by the [[Act of Settlement 1701]], which was agreed to by the [[Parliament of Scotland]] as part of the [[Treaty of Union]]. The Act of Settlement altered the line of succession to the throne laid out in the Bill of Rights.<ref>{{cite web|title=The Act of Settlement|url=http://www.parliament.uk/about/living-heritage/evolutionofparliament/parliamentaryauthority/revolution/overview/actofsettlement/|publisher=UK Parliament|access-date=8 November 2014}}</ref> However, both the Bill of Rights and the [[Claim of Right Act 1689|Claim of Right]] contributed a great deal to the establishment of the concept of [[parliamentary sovereignty]] and the curtailment of the powers of the monarch.<ref>This vigorous assertion of the rights of the subject meant that the Bill of Rights is often seen as parallel in importance with Magna Carta itself. {{cite web |title=The Bill of Rights |url=http://www.bl.uk/collection-items/the-bill-of-rights |publisher=British Library |access-date=27 November 2015}}</ref><ref>Although the Bill of Rights attacked the abuse of prerogative power rather than prerogative power itself, it had the virtue of enshrining in statute what many regarded as ancient rights and liberties. However, some historians maintain that a more profound change in the relationship between sovereign and Parliament emerged as a result of the financial settlement that Parliament negotiated with William and Mary. {{cite web |url=http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/pathways/citizenship/rise_parliament/making_history_rise.htm |title=Rise of Parliament |publisher=The National Archives |access-date=22 August 2010}}</ref><ref name="USDOS">The earliest, and perhaps greatest, victory for liberalism was achieved in England. The rising commercial class that had supported the Tudor monarchy in the 16th&nbsp;century led the revolutionary battle in the 17th, and succeeded in establishing the supremacy of Parliament and, eventually, of the House of Commons. What emerged as the distinctive feature of modern constitutionalism was not the insistence on the idea that the king is subject to law (although this concept is an essential attribute of all constitutionalism). This notion was already well established in the Middle Ages. What was distinctive was the establishment of effective means of political control whereby the rule of law might be enforced. Modern constitutionalism was born with the political requirement that representative government depended upon the consent of citizen subjects. ... However, as can be seen through provisions in the 1689 Bill of Rights, the English Revolution was fought not just to protect the rights of property (in the narrow sense) but to establish those liberties which liberals believed essential to human dignity and moral worth. The "rights of man" enumerated in the English Bill of Rights gradually were proclaimed beyond the boundaries of England, notably in the American Declaration of Independence of 1776 and in the French Declaration of the Rights of Man in 1789. {{cite web |title=Constitutionalism: America & Beyond |url=http://www.ait.org.tw/infousa/zhtw/DOCS/Demopaper/dmpaper2.html |department=Bureau of International Information Programs |publisher=U.S. Department of State |access-date=30 October 2014 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141024130317/http://www.ait.org.tw/infousa/zhtw/DOCS/Demopaper/dmpaper2.html |archive-date=24 October 2014}}</ref> These have been held to have established the [[constitutional monarchy]],{{sfn|Walker|Gay|Maer|2009|p=2: "thereby establishing a constitutional monarchy"}} and, along with the [[Penal law (Britain)|penal laws]], settled much of the political and religious turmoil that had convulsed Scotland, England and Ireland in the 17th&nbsp;century.

The Act reinforced the [[Petition of Right]] and the [[Habeas Corpus Act 1679]] by codifying certain rights and liberties. Described by [[William Blackstone]] as ''[[Fundamental Laws of England]]'', the rights expressed in these Acts became associated with the idea of the [[rights of Englishmen]].{{sfn|Billias|2011|p=54}} The Bill of Rights directly influenced the 1776 [[Virginia Declaration of Rights#Drafting and adoption|Virginia Declaration of Rights]],<ref>{{Cite book|last1=Conley|first1=Patrick T.|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=6yyQXl4LmdAC&pg=PA13|title=The Bill of Rights and the States: The Colonial and Revolutionary Origins of American Liberties|last2=States|first2=U. S. Constitution Council of the Thirteen Original|date=1992|publisher=Rowman & Littlefield|isbn=9780945612292|pages=13–15}}</ref>{{refn|Section Seven of the Virginia Declaration of Rights reads,
{{quote|That all power of suspending laws, or the execution of laws, by any authority, without consent of the representatives of the people, is injurious to their rights and ought not to be exercised.}}
which strongly echoes the first two "ancient rights and liberties" asserted in the Bill of Rights 1689:
{{quote|That the pretended power of suspending the laws or the execution of laws by regal authority without consent of Parliament is illegal;<br>
That the pretended power of dispensing with laws or the execution of laws by regal authority, as it hath been assumed and exercised of late, is illegal;}}
And the Virginia Declaration's Section Nine,
{{quote|That excessive bail ought not to be required, nor excessive fines imposed, nor cruel and unusual punishments inflicted.}}
is borrowed word for word from the Bill of Rights 1689.|group="nb"}} which in turn influenced the [[United States Declaration of Independence#Influences and legal status|Declaration of Independence]].{{sfn|Maier|1997|pp=126–28}}

Although not a comprehensive statement of civil and political liberties, the Bill of Rights stands as one of the landmark documents in the development of [[civil liberties in the United Kingdom]] and a model for later, more general, statements of rights;<ref>{{Cite book|last=Schwartz|first=Bernard|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=d52OVwT_6PYC&pg=PA1|title=The Great Rights of Mankind: A History of the American Bill of Rights|date=1992|publisher=Rowman & Littlefield|isbn=9780945612285|pages=1–2}}</ref><ref name=refUKPBoR /><ref name="USDOS" /> these include the [[United States Bill of Rights]], the French [[Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen]], the [[United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights]], and the [[European Convention on Human Rights]].<ref name="unesco2011">"All the main principles of the Bill of Rights are still in force today, and the Bill of Rights continues to be cited in legal cases in the UK and in Commonwealth countries. It has a primary place in a wider national historical narrative of documents which established the rights of Parliament and set out universal civil liberties, starting with Magna Carta in 1215. It also has international significance, as it was a model for the US Bill of Rights 1789, and its influence can be seen in other documents which establish rights of human beings, such as the Declaration of the Rights of Man, the United Nations Declaration of Human Rights and the European Convention on Human Rights." {{cite web |title=2011 UK Memory of the World Register |url=http://www.unesco.org.uk/2011-uk-memory-of-the-world-register |publisher=United Kingdom National Commission for UNESCO |date=23 May 2011 |access-date=4 June 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151208230525/http://www.unesco.org.uk/2011-uk-memory-of-the-world-register/ |archive-date=8 December 2015 |url-status=dead }}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.history.com/news/facts-about-the-bill-of-rights-on-its-220th-anniversary |title=Facts About the Bill of Rights on Its 220th Anniversary |date=15 December 2011 |publisher=History.com |access-date=29 September 2012 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131004215342/http://www.history.com/news/facts-about-the-bill-of-rights-on-its-220th-anniversary |archive-date=4 October 2013 }}</ref> For example, as with the Bill of Rights 1689, the [[US Constitution#Influences|US Constitution]] prohibits excessive bail and "[[cruel and unusual punishment]]"; in fact, the [[Eighth Amendment to the United States Constitution]] which imposes this prohibition is a near-verbatim reproduction of the corresponding article in the Bill of Rights 1689. Similarly, "[[cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment]] or punishment" is banned under Article 5 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and Article&nbsp;3 of the European Convention on Human Rights.