Points of commonality in the English Bill of Rights (1689), US Declaration of Independence (1776), and French Declaration of Rights of Man and Citizen (1789). Also a few differences. This is based on an assignment I used in my 2012 World History survey.

1. Declarations and Rights
English Bill of Rights (1689)
US Declaration of Independence (1776)
French Declaration of Rights of Man and
Citizen (1789)

2. Rule of Law
• “By assuming and exercising a power of dispensing
with and suspending of laws and the execution of
laws without consent of Parliament.” / “That the
pretended power of suspending the laws or the
execution of laws by regal authority without consent
of Parliament is illegal.” (1689)
• “He has refused his Assent to Laws” / “He has kept
among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies
without the Consent of our legislatures.” (1776)
• “Law can only prohibit such actions as are hurtful to
society. Nothing may be prevented which is not
forbidden by law, and no one may be forced to do
anything not provided for by law.” (1789)

3. Representation
• “By violating the freedom of election of members
to serve in Parliament.” (1689)
• “He has refused to pass other Laws for the
accommodation of large districts of
people, unless those people would relinquish the
right of Representation in the Legislature, a right
inestimable to them and formidable to tyrants
only.” (1776)
• “Every citizen has a right to participate
personally, or through his representative, in its
foundation. It must be the same for all, whether it
protects or punishes.” (1789)

4. Due Process
• “And several grants and promises made of fines
and forfeitures before any conviction or
judgment against the persons upon whom the
same were to be levied.” (1689)
• “For protecting them, by a mock Trial, from
punishment for any Murders which they should
commit on the Inhabitants of these States; For
depriving us in many cases, of the benefits of
Trial by Jury” (1776)
• “No person shall be accused, arrested, or
imprisoned except in the cases and according to
the forms prescribed by law.” (1789)

5. Popular Sovereignty
• "Lords Spiritual and Temporal and Commons
assembled at Westminster, lawfully, fully and freely
representing all the estates of the people of this
realm..." (1689)
• "the Legislative powers, incapable of Annihilation,
have returned to the People at large for their
exercise" (1776)
• "The principle of all sovereignty resides essentially
in the nation. No body nor individual may exercise
any authority which does not proceed directly from
the nation.” (1789)

6. Rights Endowed At Birth
• “pray that it may be declared and enacted that all and
singular the rights and liberties asserted and claimed
in the said declaration are the true, ancient and
indubitable rights and liberties of the people of this
kingdom” (1689)
• “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.” (1776)
• “The aim of all political association is the preservation
of the natural and imprescriptible rights of man. These
rights are liberty, property, security, and resistance to
oppression.” (1789)

7. Military Forces
• "That the raising or keeping a standing army within
the kingdom in time of peace, unless it be with
consent of Parliament, is against law" (1689)
• "He has kept among us, in times of
peace, Standing Armies without the Consent of our
legislatures. " (1776)
• "The security of the rights of man and of the citizen
requires public military forces. These forces
are, therefore, established for the good of all and
not for the personal advantage of those to whom
they shall be intrusted." (1789)

8. Taxes
• "That levying money for or to the use of the Crown
by pretence of prerogative, without grant of
Parliament, for longer time, or in other manner than
the same is or shall be granted, is illegal" (1689)
• "For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent..."
(1776)
• "All the citizens have a right to decide, either
personally or by their representatives, as to the
necessity of the public contribution; to grant this
freely; to know to what uses it is put; and to fix the
proportion, the mode of assessment and of
collection and the duration of the taxes." (1789)

9. Fair Trial
• "That jurors ought to be duly impanelled and
returned, and jurors which pass upon men in trials
for high treason ought to be freeholders" (1689)
• "For depriving us in many cases, of the benefits of
Trial by Jury" (1776)
• "No person shall be accused, arrested, or
imprisoned except in the cases and according to the
forms prescribed by law. Any one
soliciting, transmitting, executing, or causing to be
executed, any arbitrary order, shall be punished. But
any citizen summoned or arrested in virtue of the
law shall submit without delay, as resistance
constitutes an offense." (1789)

10. Political Speech
• "right of the subjects to petition the king, and all commitments
and prosecutions for such petitioning are illegal" and “freedom
of speech and debates or proceedings in parliament ought not
to be impeached or questioned in any court or place out of
parliament” (1689)
• "he has dissolved Representative Houses repeatedly, for
opposing with manly firmness his invasions on the rights of the
people" (1776)
• "No one shall be disquieted on account of his
opinions, including his religious views, provided their
manifestation does not disturb the public order established by
law" and "Every citizen may, accordingly, speak, write, and print
with freedom, but shall be responsible for such abuses of this
freedom as shall be defined by law" (1789)

11. Subtleties
Differences What's Missing?
• Religious Freedom • Universal citizenship
• Clarity and purpose • Women's rights
• Monarchy
• Aristocracy

12. Sources
• http://www.archives.gov/exhibits/charters/declara
tion_transcript.html
• http://avalon.law.yale.edu/17th_century/england.
asp
• http://www.hrcr.org/docs/frenchdec.html
• Background: Confederate Flag, Wilsons Creek
Battlefield Museum, picture by Jonathan Dresner