How did the English government influence American Government?

Answer 1

Great Britain's rule over the American colonies greatly influenced much of our legal body. We use many of their customs as well.

Answer 2

# Magna Carta (1215): established the principle that no one, including the king or a lawmaker, is above the law

i. Became part of English common law # Petition of Right (1628)

i. King Charles I directly challenged the rights of Englishmen by disbanding Parliament and asserting that no one could question his power because it came from God ii. Sir Edward Coke informed Charles I that Englishmen received their rights from the law, not the king and that the king was subject to the law iii. Coke then created a petition that focused on Charles' violation of the protection of the law # The English Bill of Rights (1689): formed the foundation for many concepts and principles of the United States constitution

i. Gave Nonconformists (Protestants who did not attend the Church of England) the right to freely exercise religion, gave Parliament total freedom of speech during debate, the right to assemble peacefully and petition, the right to bear arms, protections of property and liberty, rights of the accused, the rights of criminals # john Locke's Two Treaties of Government (1689)

i. Locke argued that people are by nature free and equal: they own their "persons [bodies] and possessions" ii. Without laws, people cannot preserve these natural rights, so they "unite into a community for their comfortable, safe, peaceable living" iii. It is the people's right to dissolve a government that repeatedly fails to protect them

Answer 3

The British Parliament has two houses of government, a house of commons and a house of Lords. A bill had to pass both houses of Parliament to become law. The Constitutional Convention used that pattern and established a congress with two houses.