For the 800th anniversary of one of the world’s most important documents, Elon Law Dean Luke Bierman writes in a Greensboro News & Record column that “history’s most important and persuasive statements of liberty, justice and equality, including our own U.S. and state constitutions, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the European Convention on Human Rights, derive from that field in Runnymede 800 years ago.”
“[King John’s] reign was marked by controversy over religious supremacy with allegiance to the pope or the archbishop of Canterbury in constant flux,” Bierman writes. “Moreover, the feudal barons who provided King John’s secular power were miffed over tax and military issues. Yet the king refused to negotiate with the barons, who then captured London in what clearly was royal insurrection. Forced under these circumstances to meet the barons’ demands or lose his kingdom, John and the barons met in southern England on the fields of Runnymede near the banks of the River Thames. There the king capitulated to the barons and issued the Charter of Liberties, later known as the Magna Carta. Containing 63 clauses and authenticated by the royal seal, this document provided assurances to the barons that led them to reaffirm their loyalty to the crown.”
Bierman’s News & Record column summarizes key rights and liberties established in Magna Carta.
“For the first time, limitations were imposed on the king’s absolute despotic authority, offering respite from oppressive and chaotic reigns like that of King John,” Bierman writes. “In the words of the Magna Carta itself: ‘No free man shall be seized or imprisoned, or stripped of his rights or 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 judgment of his equals or by the law of the land. To no one will we sell, to no one deny or delay right or justice.’”
The News & Record column then underscores the importance of Magna Carta in world history.
“From these few words have evolved our American conceptions of due process, equal protection and individual liberty embodied in our constitutional framework,” Bierman writes. “Indeed, history’s most important and persuasive statements of liberty, justice and equality, including our own U.S. and state constitutions, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the European Convention on Human Rights, derive from that field in Runnymede 800 years ago.”
“Our own experience across the landscape of American history in attempting to give life to the principles underlying the Magna Carta finds weakness in the legacies of slavery, uneven access to justice, gender and sexual discrimination and more,” Bierman writes. “But progress is on the right side of history, from which we should take note. While we question the value of ubiquitous institutions of government and business, the barons sought more institutional protection, not less. While we seem incapable of consensus around essential issues of our time, the king capitulated for the good of the many. While we are transfixed by the promises of instant gratification, the principles embedded in the Great Charter endure to guide us. While we struggle with conceptions and applications of liberty, justice and equality, the dynamic of history has found space for more, not fewer, to share in our experiment in self-government under the rule of law.”
Read Luke Bierman’s News & Record column celebrating Magna Carta’s 800th anniversary here.
More information about Magna Carta is available at a special American Bar Association website here.
In celebration of the 800th anniversary of Magna Carta, Elon Law is pleased to offer pocket editions of the U.S. Constitution. Stop by the dean’s office in the law school at 200 N. Greene St. in Greensboro and pick up a complimentary copy.
In addition to an array of experience as a highly accomplished attorney, legal scholar and teacher, Luke Bierman, dean and professor of law at Elon University School of Law, founded the Justice Center and directed the Judicial Division at the American Bar Association.