The Declaration of the Rights of Man and of Citizens

The Declaration of the Rights of Man and of Citizens is an essay by Georg Jellinek, subtitled A Contribution to Modern Constitutional History. The book is an authorized translation from the German by Max Farrand and revised by the author. The translator's preface says the essay is of special importance to those interested in the early constitutional history of the United States, for it traces the origin of the enactment of bills of rights.

The text says that in Germany most of the constitutions of the period prior to 1848 contained a section upon the rights of subjects. The text also says that in the year 1848 the National Constitutional Convention at Frankfort adopted the fundamental rights of the German people, which were published on December 27, 1848, as Federal law. A section on the Independent movement says it could not confine itself to ecclesiastical matters and, as with the Church, considered the state and every political association the result of a compact between its original sovereign members.