What are the contents of the Magna Carta?

What are the contents of the Magna Carta?
What are the contents of the Magna Carta?

What are the contents of the Magna Carta?
Magna Carta,also called Magna Carta Libertatum (the Great Charter of Freedoms),is an English legal charter,originally issued in the year 1215.It was written in Latin; its name is usually translated into English as Great Charter.
Magna Carta required King John of England to proclaim certain rights (pertaining to nobles and barons),respect certain legal procedures,and accept that his will could be bound by the law.It explicitly protected certain rights of the King's subjects,whether free or fettered 鈥 and implicitly supported what became the writ of habeas corpus,allowing appeal against unlawful imprisonment.
Magna Carta was arguably the most significant early influence on the extensive historical process that led to the rule of constitutional law today in the English speaking world.Magna Carta influenced the development of the common law and many constitutional documents,including the United States Constitution.[1] Many clauses were renewed throughout the Middle Ages,and continued to be renewed as late as the 18th century.By the second half of the 19th century,however,most clauses in their original form had been repealed from English law.
Magna Carta was the first document forced onto an English King by a group of his subjects (the barons) in an attempt to limit his powers by law and protect their privileges.It was preceded by the 1100 Charter of Liberties in which King Henry I voluntarily stated what his own powers were under the law.
In practice,Magna Carta in the medieval period mostly did not limit the power of Kings; but by the time of the English Civil War it had become an important symbol for those who wished to show that the King was bound by the law.
Magna Carta is normally understood to refer to a single document,that of 1215.Various amended versions of Magna Carta appeared in subsequent years however,and it is the 1297 version which remains on the statute books of England and Wales.
Content
Magna Carta was originally written in Latin.A large part of Magna Carta was copied,nearly word for word,from the Charter of Liberties of Henry I,issued when Henry I ascended to the throne in 1100,which bound the king to certain laws regarding the treatment of church officials and nobles,effectively granting certain civil liberties to the church and the English nobility.
The document commonly known as Magna Carta today is not the 1215 charter but a later charter of 1225,and is usually shown in the form of The Charter of 1297 when it was confirmed by Edward I.At the time of the 1215 charter,many of the provisions were not meant to make long term changes but simply to right the immediate wrongs,and therefore The Charter was reissued three times in the reign of Henry III (1216,1217 and 1225) in order to provide for an updated version.After this,each individual king for the next two hundred years (until Henry V in 1416) personally confirmed the 1225 charter in his own charter.
[edit] Rights still in force today
For modern times,the most enduring legacy of Magna Carta is considered the right of habeas corpus.This right arises from what are now known as clauses 36,38,39,and 40 of the 1215 Magna Carta.
As the most recent version,it is the 1297 Charter which remains in legal force in England and Wales.Using the clauses in the 1297 charter (the content and numbering are somewhat different from the 1215 Charter):Clause 1 guarantees the freedom of the English Church.Although this originally meant freedom from the King,later in history it was used for different purposes (see below).Clause 9 guarantees the 鈥渁ncient liberties鈥 of the City of London.Clause 29 guarantees a right to due process.
I.FIRST,We have granted to God,and by this our present Charter have confirmed,for Us and our Heirs for ever,that the Church of England shall be free,and shall have all her whole Rights and Liberties inviolable.We have granted also,and given to all the Freemen of our Realm,for Us and our Heirs for ever,these Liberties under-written,to have and to hold to them and their Heirs,of Us and our Heirs for ever.
IX.THE City of London shall have all the old Liberties and Customs which it hath been used to have.Moreover We will and grant,that all other Cities,Boroughs,Towns,and the Barons of the Five Ports,and all other Ports,shall have all their Liberties and free Customs.
XXIX.NO Freeman shall be taken or imprisoned,or be disseised of his Freehold,or Liberties,or free Customs,or be outlawed,or exiled,or any other wise destroyed; nor will We not pass upon him,nor condemn him,but by lawful judgment of his Peers,or by the Law of the Land.We will sell to no man,we will not deny or defer to any man either Justice or Right.[4]
The repeal of clause 26 in 1829 [5] was the first time a clause of Magna Carta was repealed.With the document's perceived protected status broken,in 150 years nearly the whole charter was repealed,leaving just Clauses 1,9,and 29 still in force after 1969.Most of it was repealed in England and Wales by the Statute Law Revision Act 1863,and in Ireland by the Statute Law (Ireland) Revision Act 1872.