COMM 317 (Spring 08): Magna Carta / REQUIRED

A feature in The Independent, a London broadsheet that recently went to a slightly smaller format, about Magna Carta (Latin for "the Great Charter"). It explains why a copy of Magna Carta brought $21.3 million at auction this week ... and why the American Bar Association sometimes gathers at the spot in England where King John I was bullied by his high noblemen into signing it in 1215:

Clause 39 is possibly the best known. It has never been rescinded and is immediately relevant to the present government. It says that "No free man shall be seized or imprisoned, or stripped of his rights and possessions, or outlawed or exiled, or deprived of his standing in any other way, nor will we proceed with force against him, or send others to do so, except by the lawful judgement of his equals or by the law of the land." When MPs try to block the [British] Government's proposal to hold suspected terrorists for up to 42 days without charges, they will be, in effect, upholding a piece of law signed by King John 792 years ago.

Clause 38 is almost as important. It said: "No official shall place a man on trial upon his own unsupported statement, without producing credible witnesses to the truth of it." Most of the worst injustices in recent legal history have occurred when people have been convicted on no real evidence other than confessions made under interrogation. Clause 40 promised to end the system by which rich offenders could simply buy their way out of trouble. For a medieval monarch to make promises like these, even with his fingers figuratively crossed, was an extraordinary moment in history.

A reminder that some of this arcane stuff we read about in Communications 317 isn't as arcane as we think it is.