Limitations Of The Common Law In The American Legal System

The Declaration of Independence is the document that created the great nation that we now call the United States of America. Although all four of the keys ideals are important, the unalienable rights ideal is by far the most important because without life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, the other three key ideals would not have meaning. Equality is a right to be protected. Consent of the governed is needed to protect these unalienable rights. Finally, if the people feel that their unalienable rights are not being protected, they can alter or abolish government.

In comparing Thomas Jefferson’s Letter to the Danbury Baptists, The Declaration of Independence, and U.S. Constitution, it is evident that the basis of all three documents is the idea that all human beings possess God-given fundamental rights and that government is created to protect those rights. The Declaration of Independence, written by Thomas Jefferson in 1776, is the first of the three documents penned. This is important because it defined the rights of liberty and equality of all American citizens as outlined in John Locke’s natural law thesis (Martin, page 113). In addition to providing an itemized account of the grievances colonist’s held against King George III of England, it served to justify the colonist’s quest for independence and separation from British rule. The Declaration of Independence conveyed to the crown that "all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, which among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness." The Founders’ of the New World understood that their pursuit of liberties and autonomy specified in the Declaration of Independence could not come to fruition without instituting decrees. In 1787, the U.S. Constitution, was written to replace the Articles of Confederation with a better defined series of stringent laws that would legally uphold the freedoms and privileges established in the Declaration of Independence. The First Amendment of the Bill of Rights in

On June of 1776, the Declaration of Independence was born. Drawn up by Thomas Jefferson and based on the works of John Locke, the general purpose of the document was to clarify that governments have conditional, not absolute authority over the people; that human beings possess natural rights that can’t be taken from them and government is created to protect those rights. The phrases “unalienable rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness” and “all men are created equal” were the main theme of the social contract written for the small colonies of what would be the basis of the United States of America to declare independence from Great Britain and its tyrannical king. However, “unalienable rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness” and “all men are created equal” did not apply to African Americans, enslaved or free for the coming years.

The United States Constitution is one of the most important documents to the citizens of the United States. It is known as the supreme law of

On July 4, 1776, the Continental Congress got together to form a document known as the Declaration of Independence. Written by American colonists, it did not want to be under British rule no more. The document also stated the rights of humans, but some of the main ones were the equality of men and also, the unalienable rights that the people of the United States were given as citizens. The Declaration of Independence has the main rights that modern citizens need now-a-day, but some can argue that the Preamble to the United States Constitution was made in order to form a more perfect union, making it the more compelling document. The Declaration of Independence, in comparison to the Preamble, is the most compelling document in today's day and age.

The issue the Declaration of Independence being a legal document has been up for debate in courts for many years now. Although, the Declaration of Independence clarifies the United States identity as a free nation, it has generated intense controversy. Some feel strongly that it did not clearly define the new powers that the thirteen colonies would acquire and did not define the identity of the United States; while, others firmly believe that without the Declaration of Independence the United States would not be the free nation that it is today. Therefore, serving as the foundation for many laws and documents composed after it, the Declaration of Independence has been helpful in defining the rights of the American citizens, the powers of

Every country has it’s own set of laws. Whatever they may be, they should be laws that are able to keep the country together. To keep a country together, these laws must satisfy, help and most certainly protect the people of this country. The United States has been a country that faced hardships, like being under Great Britain’s rule, it was divided into colonies, and it had unjust and unfair laws. This led them to fight for their rights and change these unfair laws so that it can help establish their satisfaction and freedom. After a series of events that occurred, they eventually established three documents that would satisfy, help and protect the people of the United States of America. These documents were The Constitution, The Bill of Rights, and The Declaration of Independence. Of course the events that occurred have made a huge impact on the ideas in these documents. The ones that stick out the most are the Enlightenment thinkers, The

No documents have had a greater influence on the citizens of our country than the Declaration of Independence and the US Constitution. The Declaration of Independence marked the birth of our republic and set forth our “unalienable rights” to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. Later, the Constitution outlined our style of government and defined the rights that are protected from intrusion by government.

The United States Constitution was recognized to Americans as a vague statement in clarifying the privileges and the rights of individuals and centralizing the power within the government itself. With the passing of the Bill of Rights and the first ten amendments, it grants the people to what is said to be their “natural rights” following additional rights that have significantly changed our society.

The courts play a huge role in the criminal justice system. The dual court system of the United States (U.S.) was established through the U.S. constitution. The court systems have a multiple purposes and elements of court. Federal and state court system is what makes up the dual court system of the U.S. Today the U.S. court system is what it is today because of previous legal codes, common law, and the precedent it played in the past. Making the U.S. court system a vital role in the criminal justice system..

The Declaration of Independence includes the ideal of consent of the governed. This is important to keep the government from controlling the people. The United States is governed by the consent of the people because we elect representatives to take our ideas to the government and make

On the fourth of July in 1776, Thomas Jefferson’s Declaration of Independence was adopted by the Second Continental Congress at the Pennsylvania State House in Philadelphia. This historical document demonstrates how all men are created equal and are entitled to certain rights that must be protected by the government. Approximately thirteen years later, the Constitution was adopted. Attached to the Constitution was a list of amendments, written by James Madison, with the intent to protect the rights of individual liberties. Although both documents were established at different times, they share many common, similar key points. However, they also convey many differences in how the information is portrayed. The first sentence of the third paragraph of the Declaration of Independence is the more significant statement to the people of today’s era

The United States Constitution is the highest law of the land. Looking at the constitution, with twenty-seven amendment, the first ten are known as the Bill of Right. One to eight amendments ensured the right of the people. Although the thirteen amendment abolished slavery, it paved the way for the 14th the most important amendment to be drafted and adopted in 1868.

“Life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness,” is a phrase nearly every American knows as being the three unalienable rights that cannot be revoked by the government. These self-evident truths first appeared in the Declaration of Independence, a document written to rid the United States from its torrid oppressors. Liberty, however, is the most important of the three, seeing as if American did not have it, residents would simply be slaves to their government and could not be truly free-thinking citizens.

Without the English Common Law, America’s judicial system and the true meaning and purpose of the Constitution could not be understood. As Fisher and Pond state in Our American Common Law, “It is the Common Law that is most represented within Our Constitution, Declaration of Independence and Our Bill of Rights.” These documents were designed to limit and eliminate the vicious Equity, Maritime or Admiralty Law which was what we revolted against as Our Revolution against the totalitarianism of England. Since the colonies in the seventeenth century migrated from Europe, the colonial government was a mixture of English principles that had been modified to fit the needs and beliefs of the new nation. Therefore, British and American legal systems share many similarities. Global legal system