American rule of law is based on the premise that increase in government means decrease in liberty. That being given, the underlying assumption about American rule of law is that limits must be placed on government, since the tendency of government is to grow and grow and grow. Therefore, individual, inalienable rights are officially recognized as being fundamental to our form of government and are enumerated in the Bill of Rights which was added to the Constitution so that as a last resort, people could refer to that document and essentially say to government, "This is where you may not tread. These are our rights as given us by our creator and as officially recognized in this document, the Bill of Rights.