1982 · Charters, declarations and treaties

Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms

Canada

A bill of rights built into the Canadian constitution in 1982, with a clause (section 1) that allows reasonable limits on rights.

Why it matters

Its approach to limiting rights influenced many later bills of rights, including South Africa's.

Built on

1950 (in force 1953)

European Convention on Human Rights

Council of Europe

borrowed the idea of rights limited only for good reasons

1948

Universal Declaration of Human Rights

United Nations

drew on its list of rights

Went on to shape

1990

New Zealand Bill of Rights Act

New Zealand

took the structure and many rights

1996

Constitution of South Africa

South Africa

the limitation clause and rights wording

Counting texts that borrowed from the texts that borrowed from this one, 3 later texts on this timeline trace back to it.

Countries in the Legal Families Atlas

Canada

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TheLawToKnow Tools’s timeline lists links of influence only where the borrowing is widely documented. Historians sometimes disagree about how much one text shaped another. It is an educational overview, not legal advice.