Habeas Corpus Amendment Act 1679

Timeline

1. 1676–1679England · EnglandAfter the Restoration, the prolonged detention of political prisoners without trial provoked widespread protest; Whig members of Parliament, in the context of the Exclusion Crisis, pushed for legislation to restrict the king's arbitrary imprisonment of parliamentary opponents through procedural means, and to close loopholes allowing defendants to be secretly transferred to Scotland or overseas territories to evade English court jurisdiction.
2. 1679Palace of Westminster · LondonCharles II gave royal assent to the Habeas Corpus Amendment Act; the act provided that any detained person could apply to a court for a writ of habeas corpus, requiring the detaining party to bring the prisoner before a court within 3 to 20 days and state the reasons for detention; judges refusing or delaying the writ faced heavy fines, and the transport of Englishmen overseas for detention was expressly prohibited.
3. 1689England and Commonwealth countries · EnglandThe Habeas Corpus Amendment Act became one of the most important constitutional statutes before the Bill of Rights 1689, and along with Magna Carta is regarded as one of the twin foundations of English liberty; the U.S. Constitution's Article I expressly preserves the writ of habeas corpus, and the modern international human rights prohibition on arbitrary detention is also deeply influenced by its spirit.