Magna Carta 800 Year Anniversary of Liberty
4 Attending

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2015-06-15 Time
Monday, June 15, 2015 3:01 am - 4:01 am
Location
Worldwide
Nevada
United States
Created By

Eight hundred years ago on June 15, 1215, on a reedy stretch of riverbank in southern England, the most important bargain in the history of the human race was struck. I realize that’s a big claim, but in this case, only superlatives will do. As Lord Denning, the most celebrated modern British jurist put it, Magna Carta was “the greatest constitutional document of all time, the foundation of the freedom of the individual against the arbitrary authority of the despot.”


It was at Runnymede, that the idea of the law standing above the government first took contractual form. King John accepted that he would no longer get to make the rules up as he went along. From that acceptance flowed, ultimately, all the rights and freedoms that we now take for granted: uncensored newspapers, security of property, equality before the law, habeas corpus, regular elections, sanctity of contract, jury trials.


Magna Carta is Latin for “Great Charter.” It was so named not because the men who drafted it foresaw its epochal power but because it was long. Yet, almost immediately, the document began to take on a political significance that justified the adjective in every sense.  http://www.wsj.com/articl...

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Marge Pauls
Visited Runnymede years ago. Took pix. Would have posted but...it's just a muddy field...
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