Magna Carta Matters

Magna Carta matters. It is the foundation stone supporting the freedoms enjoyed today by hundreds of millions of people in more than 100 countries. 

The original Great Charter was agreed by King John on 15th June 1215 when he acceded to barons’ and bishops’ demands to limit his powers and directed that it be sealed. This version of Magna Carta was revised several times with the 1225 reissue becoming the definitive version. 

Magna Carta enshrined the Rule of Law in English society. It limited the power of authoritarian rule. It paved the way for trial by jury, modified through the ages as the franchise was extended. It proclaimed certain religious liberties, “the English Church shall be free”. It defined limits on taxation; every American remembers that “no taxation without representation” was the cry of the American colonists petitioning the King for their rights as free men. 

For centuries it has influenced constitutional thinking worldwide.

The ideal of Magna Carta were central to both the American Declaration of Independence and Constitution.  The newly independent United States included many of its concepts in the 1791 Bill of Rights. 

In 1870 Bishop William Stubbs asserted:

“the whole of the constitutional history of England is a commentary on this Charter.”  

In 1965 Lord Denning, the most celebrated English judge of the 20th Century, described Magna Carta as:

"the greatest constitutional document of all times – the foundation of the freedom of the individual against the arbitrary authority of the despot.”

Another lasting legacy is seen in the UN Declaration of Human Rights adopted in 1948. Speaking at the UN General Assembly as she submitted the UN Declaration, Mrs. Eleanor Roosevelt argued that:

“we stand today at the threshold of a great event both in the life of the United Nations and in the life of mankind. This declaration may well become the international Magna Carta for all men everywhere”.

Recalling and commemorating Magna Carta helps everyone to deepen their understanding of the crucial role it has played in our development. It is a time to commemorate the individual rights we enjoy today. It is an opportunity to strengthen human rights around the world.