Magna Carta: 805th Anniversary

From Good News Network:

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“… on this day 805 years ago, England’s King John put his seal to the Magna Carta. The historic document established the foundations of parliamentary democracy, human rights and the supremacy of law for rebellious English Barons demanding freedom and legal due process.

“The clause at the heart of the Great Charter states that no free man should be seized or imprisoned or stripped of his rights or outlawed or exiled except by the judgement of his equals or by the law of the land. First drafted by the Archbishop of Canterbury to make peace between the unpopular King and a group of rebel barons, it laid the foundations for the current British–and later, American– legal and constitutional system, with three of the 60 clauses still in force today. The U.S. Constitution’s Fifth Amendment guarantees that “no person shall be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law”, a phrase that was derived directly from Magna Carta. (1215).”

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For more on the Magna Carta, click here and here. Also note that Former President Obama, in his Madiba Lecture two ears ago, emphasized that the Magna Carta, along with the US Constitution and other such documents, belongs to all humanity…

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