MAGNA CARTA

Magna Carta (mag-n<<schwa>> kahr-t<<schwa>>). [Latin “great charter”] The English charter that King John granted to the barons in 1215 and that Henry III and Edward I later confirmed. • It is generally regarded as one of the great common-law documents and as the foundation of constitutional liberties. The other three great charters of English liberty are the Petition of Right (3 Car. (1628)), the Habeas Corpus Act (31 Car. 2 (1679)), and the Bill of Rights (1 Will. & M. (1689)). — Also spelled Magna Charta.

“Magna Carta came to be reckoned as the beginning of English statute law; it was printed as the first of the statutes of the realm. But to explain this we have first to remark that of Magna Carta there are several editions. We have four versions of the charter, that of 1215, that of 1216, that of 1217 and that of 1225, and between them there are important differences. Several clauses which were contained in the charter of 1215 were omitted in that of 1216 and were never again inserted. It seems to have been thought unadvisable to bind the young king to some of the more stringent conditions to which John had been subjected. The charter of 1217 again differs from that of 1216. Substantially it is in 1217 that the charter takes its final form; still it is the charter of 1225 which is the Magna Carta of all future times. That there were four versions is a fact to be carefully remembered; it is never enough to refer to Magna Carta without saying which edition you mean.” F.W. Maitland, The Constitutional History of England 15 (1908; repr. 1955).

“The history of Magna Carta is the history not only of a document but also of an argument. The history of the document is a history of repeated re-interpretation. But the history of the argument is a history of a continuous element of political thinking. In this light there is no inherent reason why an assertion of law originally conceived in aristocratic interests should not be applied

on a wider scale.” J.C. Holt, Magna Carta 16 (1965).

[Blacks Law 8th]