Everything about Civil Rights totally explained
Civil rights refers to two related but different terms. In
civil law jurisdictions, a civil right is a
right or power which can be exercised under civil law, which includes things such as the ability to contract. In civil law jurisdictions, lawsuits between private parties for things such as breach of contract or a
tort are usually expressed in terms of infringement of a civil right. For example, Article 2 of the Contract Law of the People's Republic of China defines a contract as "an agreement establishing, modifying and terminating the civil rights and obligations between subjects of equal footing".
In
common law jurisdiction, the term civil right is distinguished from "
human rights" or "
natural rights". Civil rights are rights that are bestowed by
nations on those within their territorial boundaries, while natural or human rights are rights that many scholars claim that individuals have by nature of being born. For example, the philosopher
John Locke (
1632–
1704) argued that the natural rights of
life,
liberty and
property should be converted into civil rights and protected by the
sovereign state as an aspect of the
social contract. Others have argued that people acquire rights as an
inalienable gift from a deity (such as God) or at a time of
nature before governments were formed.
Laws guaranteeing civil rights may be written down, or derived from
custom, or implied. In the
United States and most continental
European countries, civil rights laws are most often written. Examples of civil rights and liberties include the right to get redress if injured by another, the right to privacy, the right of peaceful protest, the right to a fair investigation and trial if suspected of a crime, and more generally-based constitutional rights such as the
right to vote, the right to personal freedom, the right to freedom of movement and the right of equal protection. As civilizations emerged and formalized through written
constitutions, some of the more important civil rights were granted to
citizens. When those grants were later found inadequate,
civil rights movements emerged as the vehicle for claiming more
equal protection for all citizens and advocating new laws to restrict the effects of discrimination.
Implied rights
"Implied" rights are rights that a court may find to exist even though not expressly guaranteed by written law or custom, on the theory that a written or customary right must necessarily include the implied right. One famous (and controversial) example of a right implied from the U.S. Constitution is the "right to
privacy", which the
U.S. Supreme Court found to exist in the
1965 case of
Griswold v. Connecticut. In the
1973 case of
Roe v. Wade, the court found that state legislation prohibiting or limiting abortion violated this right to privacy. As a rule, state governments can expand civil rights beyond the U.S. Constitution, but they can't diminish Constitutional rights.
By region
United States
Civil rights can refer to protection against public (government) and or private sector discrimination. In the United States, the
Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution protects citizens against many forms of State discrimination, with its
due process and
equal protection requirements.
Civil rights can also refer to protection against private actors or entities. The U.S. Congress subsequently addressed the issue through the
Civil Rights Act of 1964 Sec. 201. which states: (a) All persons shall be entitled to the full and equal enjoyment of the goods, services, facilities, privileges, advantages, and accommodations of any place of public accommodation, as defined in this section, without discrimination or segregation on the ground of race, color, religion, or national origin or sex. This legislation and the
Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 are constitutional under the
Commerce Clause, as the Supreme Court has ruled that the Fourteenth Amendment only applies to the State. States generally have the power to enact similar legislation, provided that they meet the federal minimum standard, under the doctrine of
police powers.
The terms
civil rights and
civil liberties are often used interchangeably in the United States. Thomas Jefferson wrote, "a free people [claim] their rights as derived from the laws of nature, and not as the gift of their chief magistrate."
The
United States Constitution recognizes different civil rights than do most other national constitutions. Two examples of civil rights found in the US but rarely (if ever) elsewhere are the right to bear arms (
Second Amendment to the United States Constitution) and the right to a jury trial (
Sixth Amendment to the United States Constitution). Few nations, not even including a world organization body such as the
United Nations, have recognized either of these civil rights. Many nations recognize an individual's civil right to not be executed for murdering another, a civil right not recognized within the US.
Germany
The civil rights are declared in the Basic Law for the Federal Republic of Germany, especially in the articles 1 - 19.
See also
Agencies
Politics
American Civil Rights Movement (1896-1954)
American Civil Rights Movement (1955-1968)
Timeline of the American Civil Rights Movement
African American history - Black History
List of anti-discrimination acts
LGBT social movements
Related topics
Affirmative Action
Black Power
Police Brutality
Anti-Semitism
Civil liberties
Human rights
Teaching for social justice
Natural rights
Inalienable rights
Prisoners' rights
Rights
Second-class citizen
Apartheid
Feminism
Gay rights
Women's rights
Men's rights
Minority rights
Bloody Sunday - 1972, Northern Ireland
Union Organizer
Executive Order Number 11478
Fathers' rightsFurther Information
Get more info on 'Civil Rights'.
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