| Abstract: | A direct comparison between the U.S. Bill of Rights and prominentEnglish common law documents shows that the first ten amendmentsto the U.S. Constitution have only a limited relationship toEnglish antecedents. Nor were the amendment proposals by thestate ratifying conventions the primary source of the U.S. Billof Rights. Instead, this famous addition to the federal Constitutionwas a summary of the common core found in the seven existingstate bills of rights. James Madison's use of this source restedupon colonial developments in rights theory, contrasting notionsof rights in England and America, competing notions of libertyin America in the 1780s, and the political exigencies surroundingthe ratification of the U.S. Constitution. |
