Magna Carta and its modern legacy / Robert Hazell [and] James Melton.

New York, New York : Cambridge University Press, 2015.

1st edition

86758

Magna Carta.

Constitutional history -- Great Britain.

Constitutional history -- United States.

Rule of law.

Civil rights.

Part 1. Influence in the United Kingdom

Part 2. Influence around the world

Part 3. Twenty-first-century reflections on Magna Carta.

15 June 2015 marks the 800th anniversary of the signing of Magna Carta. One might have thought that everything that there was to say about Magna Carta had been said, but this book seeks to further detail the influence of Magna Carta in the United Kingdom and abroad. First, it does this by reviewing (again) historical and legal literature on Magna Carta as well as providing some new insights about its influence. Secondly, the book seeks to contribute to the literature on constitutional design. In the end, the point of this text is to demonstrate that the influence of Magna Carta is not as clear and not always as positive as we might have been lead to believe. Whilst Magna Carta grounded nascent rights for the benefit of the Barons on that day at Runnymede in its most famous articles 39 and 40, such benefits where never intended for the common good. However, as many have said before, it is not what Magna Carta says, but rather what people believe it says such that it is mythologised as a declaration against arbitrary rule and a defence of principles of freedom and equality before the law.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

9781107112773

xii, 272 p. : ill. ; 24 cm