The Magna Carta (the Great Charter) has now existed for almost eight hundred years and is still one of the most important historical documents in deciphering the idea of human freedom and equality in England. On June 1215, after his inability to “contain” an insurrection, King John signed the Magna Carta, under the pressure of a group of Norman barons. Unlike his predecessors, John was unsuccessful in war; his military was a failure both at home and abroad. John angered the barons in England by abusing his power of patronage. He induced high taxes on his subjects paradoxical to the feudal system and customs. John’s ratification of the Magna Carta symbolizes the first document under which an English King agreed and signed a promise that placed limits on royal authority, indicative that even the English king was not above the realm of the law. Furthermore, this charter expanded aspects of individual liberties from earlier laws as well as increased common representation. It addressed a few key points; first taxation can not occur without consent of the commoners, second it invoked the idea of the rule of law, which implied that even the king was bound by the rule of law, and finally it incorporated the concept of jury trials that had existed earlier under other kings. Although the Magna Carta came to be viewed over time as a forward-looking document because of its seeming origination of English liberties, the Great Charter did turn back to the feudal past to reestablish the condition of individual liberty that existed prior to the royal encroachment of traditional liberties. To claim the Great Charter alone allowed for the evolution of the modern structure of the English parliament as well as liberties is an oversimplification of ...
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... within a specific time and place it has still come to occupy an important places in the foundation of English constitutional government.
Bibliography:
Primary Sources:
Halsall, Paul. “Medieval Source book: Charter of Liberties of Henry I, 1100.” New York: Fordham University, 1996. http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/source/hcoronation.asp
“The Text of Magna Carta.” New York: Fordham University, 1995.
Secondary Sources:
Bartlett, Robert. “England Under the Norman and Angevin Kings 1075-1225.” Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2000.
Treharne, R.F. “The Nature of Parliament in the Reign of Henry III.” The English Historical Review 74. no 293: 590-610, Oct. 1959. http://www.jstore.org/action/showPublication?journalCode=englhistrevi Hollister, C. Warren, Robert C. Stacy, and Robin Chapman Stacy. The making of England to 1399, 8th ed. Houghton Mifflin, 2001.
The system of crime and law enforcement had hardly changed in Britain since the medieval times. Justices of the Peace or JPs were appointed by the Crown since 1361. Before the night watchmen and parish constables were introduced a primitive police force was introduced and the JPs were assisted by constables who only worked part time and were very unreliable as the pay was really bad. The early stages of the force consisted of a night watchmen and parish constables, who were prior to the creation of the main police force. Watchmen were groups of men, usually authorised by a state, government, or society, to deter criminal activity and provide law enforcement. Constables were required to apprehend anyone accused of a felony and bring criminals to a justice of the peace. They also had a general responsibility to keep the peace. There was no expectation that they would investigate and prosecute crimes because of limited responsibility and training. Night watchmen patrolled the streets between 9 or 10pm until sunrise and were expected to examine all suspicious characters. In the City of London, the City Marshall and the Beadles (Parish wardens) conducted daytime patrols. Similar to the night watchmen, primary responsibilities were to patrol and deter, drunkenness, beggars, vagrants and prostitutes and to act as a deterrent against more serious offences. Over the course of this period, the arrangements by which men served as constables and watchmen changed significantly, to incorporate how felons were detected and apprehended.
The Magna Carta provides protection for English citizens by limiting the power of the government. This protection can be explained through a parable: Sam Purcell of Sheffield is building a house for his family. On a chilly, November morning the noble that is in charge of Sheffield starts taking wood from Sam’s temporary shed, (where he is building his house,) for his castle. The Magna Carta makes this illegal without the consent of the owner, (31) Neither we nor any royal official will take wood for our castle, or for any other purpose, without the consent of the owner. King John of England undersigned the Magna Carta; this shaped the start of England’s constitutional monarchy. Instead of being an absolute monarchy, King John and his descendants had to abide the laws listed in the charter. Without the Magna Carta, the United States might exist without the constitution or might not exist at
The constitution of the UK is very unique compared to the constitutions in other European countries. In this essay, I will talk about the features of the UK constitution, the sources of the constitution and the principles, which guide it. This essay will also include key points about the uncodified nature of the constitution, and the advantages and disadvantages that come along with it. A topic of discussion has been whether or not the uncodified nature of the constitution of the UK should remain the same, or if, it should be codified. I will further discuss these ideas in this essay and highlight the pros and cons from both sides – codified and uncodified.
The history between the British Empire and its dominions always was significantly distinguished through the strong ties which people connected to the mother-country of Britain. However, as always in history changes were about to happen as each dominion urged to become more and more independent. The end of this process is marked by the Statute of Westminster passed in 1931 which granted the former dominions full legal freedom and established legislative equality between the now self-governing dominions of the British Empire. Therefore, the Statute of Westminster is one of the most remarkable acts in Canadian history as it set the road to the development of Canada in which we live today.
The Magna Carta was the first document in which English subjects to force English king into power; granting and protecting the subjects’ rights. This was important since the king at the time could do anything that he so desired. However, in practice, this English legal charter did not limit the king’s power. The Magna Carta is the beginnings of American freedom. It is also the foundation of the American Constitution, reflecting English freedom and the power of the English government.
Bamforth,N. Int. Jnl. Of constitutional law. Current issues in United Kingdom constitutionalism: An introduction 2011 9 (1) 79-85 doi: 10.1093/icon/mor029 (Date of Access: 12/12/11)
One of the most influential and celebrated scholars of British consistutional law , Professor A.V Dicey, once declared parliamentary soverignity as “the dominant feature of our political insitutions” . This inital account of parliamentray soverginity involved two fundamental components, fistly :that the Queen-in-Parliament the “right to make or unmake any law whatever” and that secondly “no person or body is recognised by the law of England as having a right to override or set aside the legislation of Parliament.” . However this Diceyian notion though an established principle of our constitution now lies uneasy amongst a myriad of contemporary challenges such as our membership of the European Union, the Human Rights Act and a spread of law making authority known as ‘Devolution’. In this essay I shall set out to assess the impact of each of these challenges upon the immutability of the traditional concept of parliamentary sovereignty in the British constitution.
The English legal system is complex and there are many ways in which it can be influenced, this essay will explore some of the different, more obvious ways the law can be changed and what this shows in relation to the quote above. First the essay will discuss the different ways the law can be created and changed and who enables and controls those changes, with my primary examples being the common law and legislation for the judicracy and Parliament respectively, then the essay will cover to what extent these powers enable the judicracy to change and create law in relation to Parliament and if it could be discribed as "opportunistic and piecemeal".
... idea of Parliamentary Sovereignty: The Controlling Factor of Legality in the British Constitution’ (2008) OJLS 709.
On one hand, political constitutionalists argue that parliamentary sovereignty is the underlying principle in the British constitution as power and law making are bo...
Smith, G., Anderson, I., & Anderson, L. (1899). The United Kingdom: A Political History (Vol. 1). New York: The Macmillan Co.
In 1603 the Scottish and English monarchies were united and at the beginning of the eighteenth century, the monarchy of the United Kingdom was deprived of the decision-making privilege they once had. For the purpose of this essay, I intend to examine the many different arguments both for and against the British monarchy being abolished. Proponents argue strongly that the monarchy symbolises all that is British throughout Britain and the Commonwealth Realms. However, contrary to this, the monarchy receives exorbitant financial aid from the British taxpayers to maintain the monarchy. Does the monarchy have a place in the twenty first century?
United Kingdom is a country with a distinctive set of legal system. It is fairly different from other countries having civil law based legal systems. The legal system in the United Kingdom consists of various sources of law, where other civil law based countries rely only on a written set of law. European influences on the English Legal System came much later in near decades. This essay will aim to examine the development of the English Legal System by reviewing applications of various sources of law in the English Legal System furthermore to discuss the recent European influences on the law of England.
...(4) Sources: (1) http://www.lawteacher.net/administrative-law/essays/the-magna-carta-and-english-law-administrative-law-essay.php (2) http://www.historylearningsite.co.uk/magna_carta.htm (3) http://www.constitution.org/eng/magnacar.htm (4) http://www.law.berkeley.edu/library/robbins/CommonLawCivilLawTraditions.html (5) http://www.archives.gov/exhibits/featured_documents/magna_carta/ (6) http://www.skwirk.com/p-c_s-1_u-105_t-279_c-929/causes-and-effects-of-the-magna-carta/nsw/hsie/introduction-to-democracy/democratic-development (7) http://www.historyextra.com/feature/magna-carta-turning-point-english-history (8)
Law is a tool in society as it helps to maintain social control, promoting social justice. The way law functions in society and its social institution provide a mechanism for solutions. There are many different theories of the function of law in relation to society in considering the insight they bring to different socio-legal and criminological problems. In the discussion of law’s role in social theory, Leon Petrażycki and Eugen Ehrlich share similar beliefs in the jurisprudence of society. They focused their work on the experience of individuals in establishing meaning in their legal relations with others based on the question of what it means to be a participant in law. Jürgen Habermas presents a relationship between law and morality. From a certain standpoint, law is a key steering mechanism in society as it plays an educational role in promoting conducts, a mean of communication and it