Magna Charta (and other charters)

The Avalon Project is a great resource for these documents!  They have a Documentary Record page with selected documents leading up to the United States Constitution.

Magna Charta (1215)

The King is not above the law.  Liberies granted in perpetuity.  Nobility and freemen treated differently.  (Addresses: inheritance, marriage, usury, taxes, courts and laws, fines and debts, police, illegal search and seizure, weights and measures, juries, emmigration, redressing lands and properties seized during the war.)  Establishes a council of 25 barons who are charged with opposing the King and authorized to lead the people against him if he should abuse his power.

American Colony Charters

Privileges and Prerogatives Granted by Their Catholic Majesties to Christopher Columbus (1492)

Mayflower Compact  (1620)

"We ... covenant and combine ourselves together into a civil Body Politick, for our better Ordering and Preservation, and Furtherance of the Ends aforesaid: And by Virtue hereof do enact, constitute, and frame, such just and equal Laws, Ordinances, Acts, Constitutions, and Officers, from time to time, as shall be thought most meet and convenient for the general Good of the Colony; unto which we promise all due Submission and Obedience."

Declaration of Independence (1776)

"We hold these truths to be self-evident: That all men are created equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights; that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness; that, to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed;"

Common Sense (1776)

Constitution of the United States (1787)

"We, the people of the United States, in order to form a more perfect Union, establish justice, insure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America."

Emancipation Proclamation (1863)

"I do order and declare that all persons held as slaves within said designated States, and parts of States, are, and henceforward shall be free;"

Nineteenth Amendment (1920)

Women's Sufferage.

Pan-American Union, Organization of American States (1890...)

One of the oldest international organizations.

League of Nations (1919)

The League was the first permanent international security organization whose principal mission was to maintain world peace.

Four Freedoms (1941)

Franklin D. Roosevelt goals: Freedom of speech, Freedom of worship, Freedom from want, Freedom from fear.

Atlantic Charter (1941)

1. Peace, "no aggrandizement, territorial or other", 2. territorial adjustments must be in accord with the wishes of the peoples concerned, 3. all peoples had a right to self-determination "to choose the form of government under which they will live", 6. "assurance that all the men in all lands may live out their lives in freedom from fear and want", 8. disarmament.

United Nations charter (1945)

"WE THE PEOPLES OF THE UNITED NATIONS DETERMINED [1] to save succeeding generations from the scourge of war, which twice in our lifetime has brought untold sorrow to mankind, and [2] to reaffirm faith in fundamental human rights, in the dignity and worth of the human person, in the equal rights of men and women and of nations large and small, and [3] to establish conditions under which justice and respect for the obligations arising from treaties and other sources of international law can be maintained, and [4] to promote social progress and better standards of life in larger freedom, AND FOR THESE ENDS [5] to practice tolerance and live together in peace with one another as good neighbours, and [6] to unite our strength to maintain international peace and security, and to ensure, by the acceptance of principles and the institution of methods, [7] that armed force shall not be used, save in the common interest, and [8] to employ international machinery for the promotion of the economic and social advancement of all peoples, HAVE RESOLVED TO COMBINE OUR EFFORTS TO ACCOMPLISH THESE AIMS Accordingly, our respective Governments, through representatives assembled in the city of San Francisco, who have exhibited their full powers found to be in good and due form, have agreed to the present Charter of the United Nations and do hereby establish an international organization to be known as the United Nations."