Spring Essay

Spring Final Exam Essay Human rights are what are believed to belong justifiably to every person. They have gone through an evolution from the creation of the Magna Carta to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights that we have today. In this essay I will explicate not only its evolution but as well as where I think we stand today in regards to global human rights. I believe the concept of human rights began with the creation of the Magna Carta as well as the Habeus Corpus Act. Established in 1215, the Magna Carta spelled out the rights of the barons and also created due process of law which was a constitutional guarantee that a law shall not be unreasonable, arbitrary, or capricious. Along with this, it also set up the idea that the King had to respect the law. The Habeus Corpus Act was made in 1679 and was considered to be one of the most basic guarantees of human rights. It protected from arbitrary arrest which meant that the prisoner was to be informed of the reason for his or her arrest. Then after the Habeus Corpus Act came the United States Constitution. It had seven articles, and the first ten amendments were called the Bill of Rights. Made in 1791, the Bill of Rights mirrored many of the rights provided for by the English Bill of Rights and protected basic rights of the people. During the Age of Enlightenment, Napoleon Bonaparte made the Napoleonic Code of 1807 and it brought together many of the reforms from the revolutions under one unified legal system: the belief that all men are equal, freedom of religion and right to work. It influenced French law up to the present. However, it didn’t always preserve all the ideas of the revolution. It dropped the laws dealing with the rights of women. Liberalism was the philosophy that supported the guarantees of individual freedom, political changes, and social reform. It accepted the ideas of the Enlightenment and the French Revolution. It encouraged free speech, religious tolerations and freedom of