The Magna Carta was signed (June 15th in the Julian calendar). Its primary purpose was to end a civil war between the English barons and King John.
An argument can be made that the Magna Carta was pretty much ignored by the English kings until the English Civil War in the seventeenth century. The Magna Carta was resurrected as an argument against the divine right of kings, to show that limitations on the monarch's powers were not a new and radical idea, but part of English legal tradition. Its resurrection was still fresh when the United States was created.
Despite those who would assert that presidential power is unlimited*, that limitation derives from the Magna Carta.
Not too shabby for 800 years.
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* The two Despicable Richards, for example (Nixon and Cheney).
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2 comments:
Magna Carta called for "No imprisonment without trial" and "Rapid access to justice".
Now 800 years later, we still have Gitmo.
Shame on you, USA! :-(
Dick Cheney no doubt regards the Magna Carta as a quaint document. And Chimpy would have called it "another goddamned piece of paper".
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