How did the French Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen influence human rights?
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journal article Show The American Journal of Comparative Law Vol. 38, Supplement. U. S. Law in an Era of Democratization (1990) , pp. 445-462 (18 pages) Published By: Oxford University Press https://doi.org/10.2307/840552 https://www.jstor.org/stable/840552 Read and download Log in through your school or library Read Online (Free) relies on page scans, which are not currently available to screen readers. To access this article, please contact JSTOR User Support. We'll provide a PDF copy for your screen reader.With a personal account, you can read up to 100 articles each month for free. Get StartedAlready have an account? Log in Monthly Plan
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Journal Information The American Journal of Comparative Law is the world's leading journal dedicated to the comparative study of law, as well as the critical analysis of foreign law and legal systems, and private international law. A peer-reviewed quarterly founded in 1952, the board of journal editors includes scholars with interests in the world's major legal systems and traditions. Authors from many disciplinary traditions including anthropology, economics, history, philosophy, political science, psychology, and sociology contribute to the journal. Publisher Information Oxford University Press is a department of the University of Oxford. It furthers the University's objective of excellence in research, scholarship, and education by publishing worldwide. OUP is the world's largest university press with the widest global presence. It currently publishes more than 6,000 new publications a year, has offices in around fifty countries, and employs more than 5,500 people worldwide. It has become familiar to millions through a diverse publishing program that includes scholarly works in all academic disciplines, bibles, music, school and college textbooks, business books, dictionaries and reference books, and academic journals. Rights & Usage This item is part of a JSTOR Collection. Inspired by the American Declaration of Independence in 1776 and the spirit of the Enlightenment, the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen of 1789 marked the beginning of a new political era. Since then, it has never ceased to be a reference text. The Fifth Republic explicitly states its attachment to it, citing it in the preamble of its Constitution, and the Constitutional Council recognized its constitutional value in 1971. HistoryThe Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen came into existence in the summer of 1789, born of an idea of the Constituent Assembly, which was formed by the assembly of the Estates General to draft a new Constitution, and precede it with a declaration of principles. There were many proposals. The Constituent Assembly tasked five deputies – Démeunier, La Luzerne, Tronchet, Mirabeau et Redon – with examining the various draft declarations, combining them into a single one and presenting it to the Assembly. Article by article, the French declaration was voted on between 20 and 26 August 1789. In its preamble and its 17 articles, it sets out the “natural and inalienable” rights, which are freedom, ownership, security, resistance to oppression; it recognizes equality before the law and the justice system, and affirms the principle of separation of powers. Ratified on 5 October by Louis XVI under pressure from the Assembly and the people who had rushed to Versailles, it served as a preamble to the first Constitution of the French Revolution in 1791. While the text was subsequently flouted by many revolutionaries, and followed by two other declarations of the rights of man in 1793 and 1795, the text of 26 August 1789 was the one to survive, and inspired similar texts in several European and Latin American countries throughout the 19th century; it is on this one that the French constitutions of 1852, 1946 and 1958 were founded. The Universal Declaration of the Rights of Man, signed in Paris on 10 December 1948, just like the European Convention on Human Rights, signed in Rome on 4 November 1950, have the same origins. The textThe representatives of the French People, formed into a National Assembly, considering ignorance, forgetfulness or contempt of the rights of man to be the only causes of public misfortunes and the corruption of Governments, have resolved to set forth, in a solemn Declaration, the natural, unalienable and sacred rights of man, to the end that this Declaration, constantly present to all members of the body politic, may remind them unceasingly of their rights and their duties; to the end that the acts of the legislative power and those of the executive power, since they may be continually compared with the aim of every political institution, may thereby be the more respected; to the end that the demands of the citizens, founded henceforth on simple and incontestable principles, may always be directed toward the maintenance of the Constitution and the happiness of all. In consequence whereof, the National Assembly recognises and declares, in the presence and under the auspices of the Supreme Being, the following Rights of Man and of the Citizen. Article first Men are born and remain free and equal in rights. Social distinctions may be based only on considerations of the common good. Article 2 The aim of every political association is the preservation of the natural and imprescriptible rights of Man. These rights are Liberty, Property, Safety and Resistance to Oppression. Article 3 The principle of any Sovereignty lies primarily in the Nation. No corporate body, no individual may exercise any authority that does not expressly emanate from it. Article 4 Liberty consists in being able to do anything that does not harm others: thus, the exercise of the natural rights of every man has no bounds other than those that ensure to the other members of society the enjoyment of these same rights. These bounds may be determined only by Law. Article 5 The Law has the right to forbid only those actions that are injurious to society. Nothing that is not forbidden by Law may be hindered, and no one may be compelled to do what the Law does not ordain. Article 6 The Law is the expression of the general will. All citizens have the right to take part, personally or through their representatives, in its making. It must be the same for all, whether it protects or punishes. All citizens, being equal in its eyes, shall be equally eligible to all high offices, public positions and employments, according to their ability, and without other distinction than that of their virtues and talents. Article 7 No man may be accused, arrested or detained except in the cases determined by the Law, and following the procedure that it has prescribed. Those who solicit, expedite, carry out, or cause to be carried out arbitrary orders must be punished; but any citizen summoned or apprehended by virtue of the Law, must give instant obedience; resistance makes him guilty. Article 8 The Law must prescribe only the punishments that are strictly and evidently necessary; and no one may be punished except by virtue of a Law drawn up and promulgated before the offense is committed, and legally applied. Article 9 As every man is presumed innocent until he has been declared guilty, if it should be considered necessary to arrest him, any undue harshness that is not required to secure his person must be severely curbed by Law. Article 10 No one may be disturbed on account of his opinions, even religious ones, as long as the manifestation of such opinions does not interfere with the established Law and Order. Article 11 The free communication of ideas and of opinions is one of the most precious rights of man. Any citizen may therefore speak, write and publish freely, except what is tantamount to the abuse of this liberty in the cases determined by Law. Article 12 To guarantee the Rights of Man and of the Citizen a public force is necessary; this force is therefore established for the benefit of all, and not for the particular use of those to whom it is entrusted. Article 13 For the maintenance of the public force, and for administrative expenses, a general tax is indispensable; it must be equally distributed among all citizens, in proportion to their ability to pay. Article 14 All citizens have the right to ascertain, by themselves, or through their representatives, the need for a public tax, to consent to it freely, to watch over its use, and to determine its proportion, basis, collection and duration. Article 15 Society has the right to ask a public official for an accounting of his administration. Article 16 Any society in which no provision is made for guaranteeing rights or for the separation of powers, has no Constitution. Article 17 Since the right to Property is inviolable and sacred, no one may be deprived thereof, unless public necessity, legally ascertained, obviously requires it, and just and prior indemnity has been paid. What did the French Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen do?It called for the destruction of aristocratic privileges by proclaiming an end to feudalism and to exemptions from taxation, freedom and equal rights for all "Men", and access to public office based on talent. The monarchy was restricted, and all citizens were to have the right to take part in the legislative process.
What was the impact of the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen?These articles provided protection for numerous individual rights: liberty, property, freedom of speech and the press, freedom of religion and equal treatment before the law. The Declaration guaranteed property rights and asserted that taxation should be paid by all, in proportion to their means.
How did the Declaration of the Rights of Man influence the French Revolution?Both granted freedom of religion, freedom of the press, and power to the people rather than a sovereign. The Declaration of Rights of Man and of the Citizen reflects French thought by further mandating equality of taxation and equality before the law.
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