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Magna Carta: The Most Enduring Symbol of the Rule of Law This iconic document was not intended to be a lasting declaration of legal principle. It was a practical solution to a political crisis of the highest ranks of feudal society, but it included the first reference to what became known as due process of law, and so was the first significant step in a process of guaranteeing constitutional freedoms that continues 800 years later. Sir Edward Coke interpreted it as a declaration of individual liberty in the conflict between The House of Commons and King Charles I, and it has resonant echoes in the U.S. Constitution and Bill of Rights. Origins In a grassy meadow at Runnymede, England, rebellious barons presented a list of remedies of long-held grievances to King John (based on King Henry’s Coronation Charter of 1100). King John had recently failed to reclaim the French lands he had inherited and lost and had attempted to rebuild his coffers by demanding more scutage (a fee paid in lieu of military service which he levied often during his reign). The barons – who had just received the support of London – would only allow King John to remain on the throne if he acceded to their demands. Lincolnshire’s Cardinal Stephen Langton, Archbishop of Canterbury, who supported the non-violent means of the barons and who had recently returned from King
P. Vanderbanck after E. Lutterell. Portrait of King John, from the Compleat History of England, 1697. Engraving, 1680–1687. Prints and Photographs Division, Library of Congress. John’s exile, was present as one of the king’s commissioners and helped write the final accord, the Charter of Runnymede. The formal charter was written in Latin by scribes working in the royal chancery and was sent out to bishops, sheriffs, and other officials throughout the country. Four of those original documents survive; the one from the Lincoln Cathedral is pictured here. Clauses 39 and 40 still resonate today: 39. No free man is to be arrested, or imprisoned, or disseised, or outlawed, or exiled, or in any other way ruined, nor will we go against him or send against him, except by the lawful judgment of his peers or by the law of the land.
surviving Magna Carta is one of four n’s Joh g Kin of ipt scr nu ma dral. Lincoln Cathedral’s 15. Courtesy of Lincoln Cathe 12 to g tin da rta Ca a gn Ma exemplifications of 54
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40. We will not sell, or deny, or delay right or justice to anyone.
Reissues were granted in 1216 and 1217, when the charter was divided into the Charter of the Forest – the smaller of the two – and the Great Charter – Magna Carta. Henry III reissued a version of Magna Carta in 1225, which was the first to enter English law. The final reissue in 1297 by Edward I was very similar to the 1225 version, in which the original clauses 39 and 40 were combined into a new clause 29: 29. No freeman is to be taken or imprisoned or disseised of his free tenement or of his liberties or free customs, or outlawed or exiled or in any way ruined, nor will we go against such a man or send against him save by lawful judgment of his peers or by the law of the land. To no-one will we sell or deny or delay right or justice.
Carta is the idea that the Great Charter was fundamental law, a law that no King can ever repeal. While this was merely interpretation, not law, it was Coke’s perspective that influenced the colonies of British America.
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Ten weeks later, at King John’s request, Pope Innocent III nullified the agreement. King John then cut a swath through Lincolnshire in a civil war to save his throne. Illness – some legends say food poisoning – ended his life in Newark Castle, a residence of the bishops of Lincoln. Fighting continued, until the climax was reached in a battle in Lincoln – where Stephen Langton studied as a young cleric. The barons were defeated assuring the succession of John’s son Henry III to the English throne.
Magna Carta was the first of a series of instruments in England that have a special constitutional status, including the Petition of Right (1628), the Habeas Corpus Act (1679), and the Bill of Rights (1689). (There is no defining document that can be termed the “Constitution” in England because the political system evolved over time, rather than being changed suddenly in an event such as a revolution.) The first petition presented by the commons to the monarch at each new parliament is a request that the Magna Carta be retained. The British Library has an extensive website on Magna Carta. Inspiration for Americans During the American Revolution, Magna Carta served to inspire and justify action in liberty’s defense. The colonists believed they were entitled to the same rights as Englishmen, rights guaranteed in Magna Carta.
The 1297 version remains in statute today, but beginning in 1829, clauses were repealed and replaced by other statutes. Clause 29 is one of the three remaining, and it can be found in The National Archive’s database of current legislation. A 1354 statute by Edward III repeats the guarantees laid out in clause 29, with some slight but important differences. Instead of protecting only free men – which meant landowners of a particular level of wealth and townspeople – this statute protects “Man of what Estate or Condition that he be.” And instead of guaranteeing protections according to “the law of the land,” this statute substitutes the phrase “due process of the law,” the very first instance of this phrase in legal literature. This statute, including a scan of the original Latin version, can also be seen in the legislation database. Clause 29 received its classic form at the hands of the celebrated jurist Sir Edward Coke in his Second Part of the Institutes of the Laws of England, which was published after his death in 1634. At the heart of Coke’s interpretation of Magna
Images, photographs, and captions in this article are from the traveling exhibit, Magna Carta: Enduring Legacy 1215–2015, courtesy of the American Bar Association and the Library of Congress, except for the Lincoln Cathedral manuscript. All rights reserved.
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Colonists, including John Dickinson, James Otis, and Benjamin Franklin, objected to England’s Stamp Act’s provision that those who disobeyed could be tried in admiralty courts without a jury of their peers. Coke’s influence on Americans showed clearly when the Massachusetts Assembly reacted by declaring the Stamp Act “against the Magna Carta and the natural rights of Englishmen, and therefore, according to Lord Coke, null and void.” It is no wonder that, as the colonists prepared for war and the resulting new country, they would look to Coke and Magna Carta for justification and inspiration.
Through Lord Coke, John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, and James Madison learned of the spirit of the charter and the common law – especially Coke’s interpretation of them. Jefferson wrote to Madison of Coke in 1826: “a sounder Whig never wrote, nor of profounder learning in the orthodox doctrines of the British constitution, or in what were called English liberties.” Americans embedded principles of Magna Carta into the laws of their states and later into the Constitution and the Bill of Rights. The Fifth Amendment to the Constitution, “no person shall…be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law,” is a direct descendant of Magna Carta’s guarantee.
King Edward I reissued Magna Carta and the Charter of the Forest in 1297 in an act known as the Confirmation of the Charters. Confirmation of the Charters as reproduced in Statutes of the Realm. London, 1810. Engraving, 1810. Law Library of Congress.
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Lasting Legacy Magna Carta is the origin of many enduring constitutional principles: the rule of law, the right to a jury trial, the right to a speedy trial, freedom from unlawful imprisonment, protection from unlawful seizure of property, the theory of representative government, the principle of “no taxation without representation,” and most importantly, the concept of fundamental law – a law that not even the sovereign can alter. An Evolving Document As with Magna Carta, the U.S. Constitution is not static; it has been amended and interpreted Magna Carta’s First Visit to the United States. On the Lincoln Magna Carta’s first visit to the through the years. This has United States seventy-five years ago, British Ambassador Lord Lothian delivers Magna Carta allowed the Constitution to to Librarian of Congress Archibald MacLeish for safekeeping during World War II. become the longest-lasting written constitution codified in a single document and a model for those penned by other nations. Constitutional rights continue to evolve through amendments to the U.S. Constitution; the most recent is the Twenty-seventh. Amendment XXVII prohibits any law that increases or decreases the salary of members of Congress from taking effect until the start of the next set of terms of office for Representatives. It was submitted by Congress to the states for ratification on September 25, 1789, and became part of the Constitution in May 1992, a record-setting period of 202 years, seven months, and twelve days. Constitutional rights also evolve through interpretations of our laws by judicial review, decisions that are made weekly throughout our nation. “The democratic aspiration is no mere recent phase in human history… It was written in Magna Carta.” – Franklin Delano Roosevelt, 1941 Inaugural Address See these and other Magna Carta images at the ABA/Library of Congress traveling exhibit in April throughout Utah; details on page 11.
“Magna Carta is the origin of many enduring constitutional principles: the rule of law, the right to a jury trial, the right to a speedy trial, freedom from unlawful imprisonment, protection from unlawful seizure of property, the theory of representative government, the principle of ‘no taxation without representation,’ and most importantly, the concept of fundamental law – a law that not even the sovereign can alter.”
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