The Basic Law for the Federal Republic of Germany (1949)

The Grundgesetz — Germany’s post-war constitution, built around the inviolability of human dignity

Adopted by the Parliamentary Council in Bonn on May 23, 1949 and in force the next day, the Basic Law (Grundgesetz) is the constitution of the Federal Republic of Germany. It was deliberately named a “basic law” rather than a “constitution” — a signal, at the time, that it was meant as a provisional charter for West Germany pending eventual reunification. When Germany reunified in 1990, the Basic Law simply extended to the whole country and became, in substance, its permanent constitution.

Article 1 — Human dignity

“Human dignity shall be inviolable. To respect and protect it shall be the duty of all state authority.” Drafted with the crimes of the Nazi era directly in view, Article 1 is the Basic Law’s opening word and its interpretive anchor: every other right in the document is read in light of it.

Article 20 — The structure of the state

Establishes the Federal Republic as a democratic and social federal state, in which all state authority is derived from the people and exercised through elections and through legislative, executive, and judicial bodies bound by law — the separation of powers and the rule of law (Rechtsstaat) as constitutional bedrock.

Article 79(3) — The “eternity clause”

Perhaps the Basic Law’s most distinctive feature: Article 79(3) forbids any constitutional amendment that would touch the federal structure, the states’ participation in legislation, or the principles laid down in Articles 1 and 20. Human dignity, democracy, the rule of law, and the federal and social state are, by the constitution’s own terms, permanently beyond the reach of ordinary amendment — a direct response to how the Weimar Republic’s constitution had been legally dismantled from within in the 1930s.

The basic rights (Articles 1–19)

The Basic Law opens with an extensive catalogue of enforceable basic rights — dignity, free development of personality, equality before the law, freedom of faith and conscience, freedom of expression and the press, freedom of assembly and association, and the right to conscientious objection — before turning, from Article 20 onward, to how the federal state itself is organized: the Bundestag, the Bundesrat, the Federal President, the Federal Government, and the Federal Constitutional Court, which has the power to strike down laws that violate the Basic Law.

Primary source: Basic Law for the Federal Republic of Germany (Grundgesetz), official English translation, Deutscher Bundestag.

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The Act of Settlement (1701)

The statute that secured the Protestant succession and judicial independence in England

Passed by Parliament in 1701, the Act of Settlement secured the Protestant succession to the English throne after the deaths of William III and of Queen Anne’s last surviving child — and, in doing so, wrote several lasting constitutional principles into English law.

Settling the succession

The Act settled the Crown, failing heirs of William III and of Princess Anne of Denmark, on Sophia, Electress of Hanover (granddaughter of James I) and her Protestant heirs. It barred the throne to any Roman Catholic, or to anyone who married a Roman Catholic — extending the religious settlement of the 1689 Bill of Rights. This is the line of succession that, in 1714, brought George I and the House of Hanover to the British throne, and from which the present monarchy descends.

Constitutional conditions attached to the Crown

Beyond the succession itself, the Act attached lasting conditions on how England would be governed:

• Judicial independence. Judges’ commissions were made valid quamdiu se bene gesserint (“during good behavior”) rather than at the Crown’s pleasure, and judges could be removed only on the address of both Houses of Parliament — the foundation of an independent judiciary, insulated from royal removal.
• Parliamentary consent for war. The monarch could not engage the country in war for territories not belonging to the Crown of England without the consent of Parliament.
• No foreign monarch may commit England’s forces or leave the realm without Parliament’s consent to defend dominions or territories not belonging to the Crown of England.
• Ministerial accountability. All matters and things relating to the government were to be transacted in the Privy Council, and resolutions signed by those who advised and consented to them — an early accountability mechanism for royal advisors.
• No pardon to bar impeachment. No pardon under the Great Seal of England could be pleaded to bar an impeachment by the House of Commons.

Together with the Bill of Rights of 1689, the Act of Settlement is one of the foundational statutes of the uncodified British constitution, and its rule on judicial tenure directly influenced Article III of the U.S. Constitution, which likewise gives federal judges life tenure “during good Behaviour.”

Primary source: Act of Settlement 1701 (12 & 13 Will. 3 c. 2), UK Parliament.

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The (English) Bill of Rights (1689)

Parliament’s post-revolution settlement that curbed royal power in England

Passed by Parliament in December 1689, the Bill of Rights followed the Glorious Revolution of 1688 and set firm legal limits on royal power in England — the ancestor, both in spirit and in the name colonists later chose, of the American Bill of Rights a century later.

It was framed as a declaration of the “true, ancient and indubitable rights and liberties of the people of this kingdom,” read to William and Mary before they accepted the crown, then enacted into law. Its key provisions:

• No suspending power. The pretended power of suspending the laws, or the execution of laws, by regal authority without consent of Parliament, is illegal.
• No dispensing power. The pretended power of dispensing with laws, or the execution of laws, by regal authority… is illegal.
• No royal taxation without Parliament. Levying money for or to the use of the Crown, by pretence of prerogative, without grant of Parliament… is illegal.
• Right to petition. It is the right of the subjects to petition the King, and all commitments and prosecutions for such petitioning are illegal.
• No standing army without consent. The raising or keeping of a standing army within the kingdom in time of peace, unless it be with consent of Parliament, is against law.
• Free elections. Election of members of Parliament ought to be free.
• Freedom of speech in Parliament. The freedom of speech, and debates or proceedings in Parliament, ought not to be impeached or questioned in any court or place out of Parliament.
• No excessive bail or cruel punishment. Excessive bail ought not to be required, nor excessive fines imposed, nor cruel and unusual punishments inflicted.
• Regular Parliaments. For redress of all grievances, and for the amending, strengthening and preserving of the laws, Parliament ought to be held frequently.

The Act also settled the succession of the Crown on William and Mary and their heirs, and barred any Catholic, or anyone married to a Catholic, from ever holding the English throne — a restriction later carried into the Act of Settlement below.

Primary source: Bill of Rights 1689 (1 Will. & Mar. Sess. 2 c. 2), UK Parliament.

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The North Atlantic Treaty (1949)

The founding treaty of NATO — collective defense among North America and Europe

Signed in Washington, D.C. on April 4, 1949 by the United States, Canada, and ten European nations, the North Atlantic Treaty created NATO — the alliance built on the promise that an attack on one member is an attack on all.

The Parties to this Treaty reaffirm their faith in the purposes and principles of the Charter of the United Nations and their desire to live in peace with all peoples and all Governments. They are determined to safeguard the freedom, common heritage and civilisation of their peoples, founded on the principles of democracy, individual liberty and the rule of law. They seek to promote stability and well-being in the North Atlantic area. They are resolved to unite their efforts for collective defence and for the preservation of peace and security. They therefore agree to this North Atlantic Treaty.

Article 1

The Parties undertake, as set forth in the Charter of the United Nations, to settle any international dispute in which they may be involved by peaceful means… and to refrain in their international relations from the threat or use of force in any manner inconsistent with the purposes of the United Nations.

Article 2

The Parties will contribute toward the further development of peaceful and friendly international relations by strengthening their free institutions, by bringing about a better understanding of the principles upon which these institutions are founded, and by promoting conditions of stability and well-being.

Article 3

To more effectively achieve the objectives of this Treaty, the Parties, separately and jointly, by means of continuous and effective self-help and mutual aid, will maintain and develop their individual and collective capacity to resist armed attack.

Article 4

The Parties will consult together whenever, in the opinion of any of them, the territorial integrity, political independence or security of any of the Parties is threatened.

Article 5 — The collective defense clause

The Parties agree that an armed attack against one or more of them in Europe or North America shall be considered an attack against them all and consequently they agree that, if such an armed attack occurs, each of them… will assist the Party or Parties so attacked by taking forthwith, individually and in concert with the other Parties, such action as it deems necessary, including the use of armed force, to restore and maintain the security of the North Atlantic area.

Any such armed attack and all measures taken as a result shall immediately be reported to the Security Council. Such measures shall be terminated when the Security Council has taken the measures necessary to restore and maintain international peace and security.

Article 6

Defines the geographic scope of Article 5 — the territory of any Party in Europe or North America, and forces, vessels or aircraft in the North Atlantic area north of the Tropic of Cancer. (The original 1949 text also named the Algerian departments of France, then part of metropolitan France; that clause ceased to apply after Algeria’s independence in 1962.)

Articles 7–9

The Treaty does not affect, and cannot be interpreted as affecting, the rights and obligations of members under the UN Charter, or the Security Council’s primary responsibility for international peace and security (Article 7). No Party will enter into any international engagement in conflict with the Treaty (Article 8). Article 9 establishes the North Atlantic Council, on which every member is represented, to consider matters concerning the Treaty’s implementation.

Article 10 — Accession

The Parties may, by unanimous agreement, invite any other European state in a position to further the principles of the Treaty to accede to it — the mechanism by which NATO has grown from its 12 founding members to more than 30 today.

Articles 11–14

The Treaty is ratified according to each Party’s constitutional processes, with instruments deposited with the Government of the United States (Article 11). After the Treaty has been in force for ten years, or at any time thereafter, the Parties may consult together for the purpose of reviewing it (Article 12). After it has been in force for twenty years, any Party may cease to be a Party one year after giving notice of denunciation (Article 13). The original Treaty is deposited in the archives of the Government of the United States, which furnishes certified copies to the other signatories (Article 14).

The founding signatories

Belgium, Canada, Denmark, France, Iceland, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, the United Kingdom, and the United States.

Primary source: North Atlantic Treaty Organization, official treaty text.

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The Department of the Treasury

An overview of America’s oldest economic department, and how U.S. companies earn the right to do business abroad

Congress created the Department of the Treasury on September 2, 1789 — one of the first three executive departments, alongside State and War — and named Alexander Hamilton its first Secretary. From the beginning, Treasury’s job was to give the young federal government financial credibility: collecting revenue, paying down the debts the states and Congress had run up during the Revolution, and establishing a national system of credit that other nations would trust.

What Treasury does today

The department that started as a small revenue office now touches nearly every part of the American economy. It manufactures the nation’s currency through the U.S. Mint and the Bureau of Engraving and Printing; it collects income and excise taxes through the Internal Revenue Service; it finances the government by issuing Treasury securities and managing the national debt; it regulates national banks through the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency; and it sets international economic and exchange-rate policy on behalf of the United States.

One office matters especially for how American businesses operate overseas: the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC), housed inside Treasury, administers U.S. economic and trade sanctions. OFAC is the office that decides, in practice, where and how a U.S. company may lawfully send money, ship goods, or do business abroad — and the one that issues licenses when an otherwise-restricted transaction is allowed to proceed.

How U.S. companies earn the right to operate abroad

A U.S. corporation doesn’t get a blanket right to set up shop in another country just by existing — that right is built, country by country, out of a layered set of American and international legal instruments, many of them negotiated with the nation’s own allies:

Treaties of Friendship, Commerce, and Navigation (FCN treaties) — a class of bilateral treaties the United States negotiated with dozens of allied nations, mostly in the 19th and 20th centuries, that reciprocally guarantee each country’s nationals and companies the right to establish, own, and operate a business in the other’s territory. Many of these treaties are still in force today, and they are the legal ancestor of the modern E-1/E-2 “treaty trader” and “treaty investor” visa categories.

Bilateral Investment Treaties (BITs) — newer agreements, mostly from the late 20th century onward, that protect American investment abroad against expropriation and unfair treatment, and guarantee the right to move profits back to the United States.

The Constitution’s Foreign Commerce Clause (Article I, Section 8) gives Congress — not the states — the power to regulate commerce with foreign nations, which is the domestic constitutional basis for all of the above: it’s why these are federal treaties and federal licensing regimes, uniform across the country, rather than fifty different state rules.

OFAC licensing, in turn, is the practical last step: even where a treaty or trade agreement clears the way, a U.S. company’s overseas activity still has to clear Treasury’s sanctions rules for the specific country and counterparties involved.

Together, this is the framework — part treaty, part statute, part constitutional design — that lets American companies open offices, own subsidiaries, and move money and goods in and out of countries that are home to the United States’ foreign allies, while keeping that activity accountable to U.S. law.

Overview prepared for the Boston Made Reader. Sources: U.S. Department of the Treasury; U.S. Department of State treaty records.

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The Emancipation Proclamation

An overview of Lincoln’s wartime proclamation

On January 1, 1863, in the middle of the Civil War, President Abraham Lincoln issued a presidential proclamation declaring that enslaved people in Confederate-held territory “are, and henceforward shall be free.” It was, by design, a narrow legal instrument rather than a sweeping abolition: Lincoln acted under his wartime powers as commander-in-chief, and the proclamation applied only to the states and parts of states still in rebellion against the Union — specifically naming the areas covered and, just as specifically, exempting Union-occupied parishes in Louisiana, areas of Virginia that would soon become West Virginia, and the border states that had never seceded, where slavery remained legal under state law until later amendments.

What it actually did

Because it rested on the president’s military authority rather than ordinary legislation, the Proclamation could only reach into territory the Confederacy still controlled — it freed no one in the loyal border states of Missouri, Kentucky, Maryland, and Delaware, and it exempted specific Union-held Confederate counties and parishes by name. Where it did apply, though, it changed the legal character of the war: Union armies advancing into the South now advanced as armies of liberation, and it authorized, for the first time at national scale, the enlistment of Black men into the armed service of the United States — roughly 200,000 would serve in the Union Army and Navy by the war’s end.

Lincoln closed the document by calling it “an act of justice, warranted by the Constitution, upon military necessity” and invoking “the gracious favor of Almighty God.”

Why it mattered later

The Proclamation did not end slavery in the United States by itself — that required the Thirteenth Amendment, ratified in December 1865, after Lincoln’s death. But it reframed the Union’s war aims, made emancipation a Union military objective enforced by advancing armies, and gave the eventual amendment its political momentum. It remains one of the most consequential documents in American history and a turning point in the nation’s constitutional order.

Overview prepared for the Boston Made Reader. Original document: Washington, D.C., January 1, 1863.

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The Federal Charter of 1291

An overview of the Bundesbrief — Switzerland’s founding pact

In the first days of August 1291, the leaders of three small alpine communities — Uri, Schwyz, and Unterwalden — sealed a short Latin document pledging to help one another against anyone who threatened their people or their property. It was one of many regional defense pacts common in medieval Europe, and it did not create a country overnight. But it is the oldest surviving written agreement among the valleys that grew into the Swiss Confederation, and the Swiss have marked its anniversary as their National Day every August 1st since 1891 — six hundred years after it was sealed.

What the charter promised

The Bundesbrief (“federal letter” or “federal charter”) opens by explaining, in its own words, that “honor and the public weal are promoted when leagues are concluded for the proper establishment of quiet and peace.” From there, its clauses are practical and specific rather than philosophical:

The three communities agreed to assist each other “with aid, with every counsel and every favor, with person and goods,” at each community’s own expense, against violence done to any of them or their property within their valleys.

They agreed to refuse outside judges: no official could be imposed on them who had “obtained his office for any price, or for money in any way whatever,” or who was not a native or resident of the community — an early insistence on local, incorruptible justice.

They set up internal arbitration, so that disputes between residents of the allied valleys would be settled by their own wise men rather than by outside authority, with escalation only if local arbitration failed.

They preserved existing feudal obligations rather than abolishing them outright — the charter is explicit that “every man, according to his rank, shall obey and serve his overlord as it behooves him,” making clear this was a defensive alliance between communities, not yet a declaration of independence from the Holy Roman Empire.

The document closes by declaring that these “statutes, decreed for the commonweal and health, shall endure forever, God willing,” and is dated to the beginning of August 1291.

Why it mattered later

The Bundesbrief did not by itself create modern Switzerland — it was one alliance among several renewed and expanded over the following centuries as more cantons joined the confederation. But Swiss national memory fixed on this particular document (preserved today in the Bundesbrief Museum in Schwyz) as the symbolic birth certificate of the country, the moment communities chose mutual defense and local self-governance over rule imposed from outside. That principle — local communities federating for common defense while keeping their own institutions — remains the structural idea behind Switzerland’s cantonal system today.

Overview prepared for the Boston Made Reader. Original document: Uri, Schwyz & Unterwalden, early August 1291.

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Magna Carta (1215)

An overview of the Great Charter

In June 1215, on a meadow beside the River Thames at Runnymede, King John of England put his seal to a charter that a group of rebellious barons had forced upon him. It did not read, at the time, like the birth of modern liberty — it was a peace treaty between an unpopular king and the nobles he had taxed and abused. But in the centuries since, Magna Carta has become the seed document of constitutional government in the English-speaking world: the first time a king of England agreed, in writing, that his power had limits, and that those limits could be enforced against him.

What it actually did

Most of Magna Carta’s original 63 clauses are narrow and medieval — they fix the fees a baron’s heir owed the crown, regulate the treatment of widows, set weights and measures for wine and cloth, and settle disputes over royal forests and fish weirs on the Thames. Read on their own, they look like an inventory of thirteenth-century grievances. Their lasting importance lies in a handful of clauses that reach past their own century:

Clause 1 declared that “the English Church shall be free,” guaranteeing it independence from royal interference.

Clauses 12 and 14 held that the king could not levy certain taxes without the “common counsel of the realm” — an early ancestor of the principle that taxation requires consent, later inherited by Parliament and, centuries on, by the American colonists’ cry of “no taxation without representation.”

Clause 39 is the clause most often quoted today: no free man was to be arrested, imprisoned, or stripped of his rights “except by the lawful judgment of his peers.” It is the root of due process and, eventually, of habeas corpus.

Clause 40 bound the crown to sell no one justice and delay no one justice — a promise that courts would be open rather than for sale.

Clause 61, the “security clause,” set up a council of twenty-five barons empowered to seize the king’s castles and lands if he broke the charter’s terms — the first time an English king accepted an enforcement mechanism against his own crown.

Why it mattered later

King John asked the Pope to annul the charter within weeks, and it briefly triggered a civil war. But his son, and later kings, reissued revised versions of it, and by the time it was confirmed under Edward I in 1297, key clauses had entered England’s permanent statute book — they remain part of English law today. Magna Carta’s language and logic were carried directly into the American tradition: colonial charters cited it, the Fifth Amendment’s due process clause descends from Clause 39, and the Founders treated it as proof that even a sovereign is bound by law.

Overview prepared for the Boston Made Reader. Original document: Runnymede, June 15, 1215.

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The Bill of Rights

The first ten amendments to the Constitution of the United States

Congress of the United States begun and held at the City of New-York, on Wednesday the fourth of March, one thousand seven hundred and eighty nine. THE Conventions of a number of the States, having at the time of their adopting the Constitution, expressed a desire, in order to prevent misconstruction or abuse of its powers, that further declaratory and restrictive clauses should be added: And as extending the ground of public confidence in the Government, will best ensure the beneficent ends of its institution.

Amendment I
Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.

Amendment II
A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.

Amendment III
No Soldier shall, in time of peace be quartered in any house, without the consent of the Owner, nor in time of war, but in a manner to be prescribed by law.

Amendment IV
The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.

Amendment V
No person shall be held to answer for a capital, or otherwise infamous crime, unless on a presentment or indictment of a Grand Jury, except in cases arising in the land or naval forces, or in the Militia, when in actual service in time of War or public danger; nor shall any person be subject for the same offence to be twice put in jeopardy of life or limb; nor shall be compelled in any criminal case to be a witness against himself, nor be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor shall private property be taken for public use, without just compensation.

Amendment VI
In all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall enjoy the right to a speedy and public trial, by an impartial jury of the State and district wherein the crime shall have been committed, which district shall have been previously ascertained by law, and to be informed of the nature and cause of the accusation; to be confronted with the witnesses against him; to have compulsory process for obtaining witnesses in his favor, and to have the Assistance of Counsel for his defence.

Amendment VII
In Suits at common law, where the value in controversy shall exceed twenty dollars, the right of trial by jury shall be preserved, and no fact tried by a jury, shall be otherwise re-examined in any Court of the United States, than according to the rules of the common law.

Amendment VIII
Excessive bail shall not be required, nor excessive fines imposed, nor cruel and unusual punishments inflicted.

Amendment IX
The enumeration in the Constitution, of certain rights, shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people.

Amendment X
The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.

Ratified December 15, 1791. Source: National Archives, Bill of Rights transcript.

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The Abraham Accords Declaration

Abraham Accords: Declaration of Peace, Cooperation, and Constructive Diplomatic and Friendly Relations

We, the undersigned, recognize the importance of maintaining and strengthening peace in the Middle East and around the world based on mutual understanding and coexistence, as well as respect for human dignity and freedom, including religious freedom.

We encourage efforts to promote interfaith and intercultural dialogue to advance a culture of peace among the three Abrahamic religions and all humanity.

We believe that the best way to address challenges is through cooperation and dialogue and that developing friendly relations among states advances the interests of lasting peace in the Middle East and around the world.

We seek tolerance and respect for every person in order to make this world a place where all can enjoy a life of dignity and hope, regardless of their race, faith or ethnicity.

We support science, art, medicine, and commerce to inspire humankind, maximize human potential and bring nations closer together.

We aim to end radicalization and conflict to provide all children a better future.

We welcome the progress already made in establishing diplomatic relations between Israel and its neighbors in the region under the framework of the Abraham Accords, and we are encouraged by the ongoing efforts to consolidate and expand such friendly relations based on shared interests and a shared commitment to a better future.

Signed in Washington, D.C., on September 15, 2020, on behalf of the Government of the State of Israel, Benjamin Netanyahu, Prime Minister; on behalf of the Government of the United Arab Emirates, Abdullah bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation; and on behalf of the Kingdom of Bahrain, Abdullatif bin Rashid Al Zayani, Minister of Foreign Affairs — witnessed by Donald J. Trump, President of the United States of America.

Source: U.S. Department of State and the official White House record of the September 15, 2020 signing ceremony.

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