Diverse struggles and atrocities inspire different shades of activism, rights, and powers. But the principles remain the same -- a strife for betterment and justice. Such timeless aspirations were at the heart of every revolution and it started with the divine concept of freedom from oppression and liberties.
In today’s world, our statehood determines those liberties through a written or unwritten constitution setting out fundamental principles. However, in 13th century medieval England, the people of the land did not have those privileges. It was a world different from ours. Lay people lived impoverished, oppressed, and ignorant of their rights. The country was governed by the rancid monarchy of a despotic king, King John II, who was unpopular and notorious for his misgivings -- assassinations of family members, starving his prisoners, and, most callously, raising taxes beyond the means of the barons to fuel his poor military ambitions with France.
The desperate situation led 25 barons to capture London and ransom the monarch out of his residence in Windsor Castle, saying that if he did not agree to their terms they would not release the city. The cornered King met the barons in the meadows of Runnymede outside the castle and reluctantly agreed to their demands by affixing the document with his Royal seal in June 1215, following five days of intense negotiations. This is the document we know today as the Magna Carta, Latin for Great Charter.
Being a lawyer, I learned of the Magna Carta during the early days of my legal studies. I remembered it to be one of the integral elements of the UK constitution. It contributed to several necessary tenets for a progressive and democratic society -- rule of law, right to fair trial, including freedom from unlawful detention and jury trial, restrictions on imposition of arbitrary tax, protection for widows, rights for debtors, and even basic social needs such as standardisation of weights and measurements for commerce.
Interestingly, the original Magna Carta has been revised and redrafted several times throughout the centuries. Today, only three out of the 63 clauses survive in their original form. The others were repealed or subsumed in different legislations. Amongst the three, Clauses 1 and 13 were specific to the Church and the City of London; Clause 39, which is perhaps the most celebrated, enshrined the spirit of freedom from oppression: “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 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.”
We Bangladeshis too have borrowed it in our own constitution in Article 33, which calls for safeguards against arbitrary arrest and detention without due process. Legally, the right is known as habeus corpus, the right from unlawful detention which is of primal importance in society, being relevant for both wartime and peacetime detainees. For me, the striking thing is that this right is as relevant today as it was 800 years ago. Though no longer existent in its original form, my personal favourite is Clause 40: “To no one will we sell, to no one will we refuse or delay, right or justice,” which so beautifully enshrines the integral attribute of due process. Justice should not be bought or refused to anyone, hence, epitomising the decency of any civic society.
Through time, the Magna Carta has inspired several documents of constitutionally phenomenal importance. In 1789, the American Bill of Rights was created to establish the core set of values of liberty and freedom in the newfound land. Amongst many historic documents on which the bill was based, the oldest was Magna Carta, going back centuries, engendering the shared protection of values of jury trial, rule of law, and freedom from torture.
Some years later, in the 1790s, when France was plunged into a gory and dark Reign of Terror, the Magna Carta, on the other side of the Channel, stood as a beacon of hope and social justice. It is known to be the inspiration for the French Declaration of Rights of Man and Citizen, which established universal freedoms for mankind and defined the inalienable and “natural” rights of man -- “liberty, property, security, and resistance to oppression.”
These rights were further echoed in contemporary international conventions such as the Universal Declaration of Human Rights 1948, compiled after the Second World War, and the European Convention of Human Rights 1953. The consistent reiteration of such principles evidenced the best that mankind could expect from itself, and the lasting impact of the Magna Carta as a document to which these principles could be traced.
The historic importance of the Magna Carta also kept escalating as it was referenced by illustrated individuals in metaphorical or substantive terms. In 1694, Sir Edward Coke, a famous English parliamentarian and judge who widely researched the Magna Carta, said that the liberty of a man’s person is more precious to him than all the rest that follows. Nelson Mandela mentioned it in his defence speech in 1964 as being one of the documents, “which democrats held in veneration all over the world.” Lord Denning, a distinguished English judge, called it: “The greatest constitutional document of all times -- the foundation of the freedom of the individual against the arbitrary authority of the despot.” Mahatma Gandhi used the Magna Carta to describe the Indian settlement in South Africa.
However, many criticise the Magna Carta for being created out of duress and being less inclusive than it appears. The rights enshrined in it were all addressed to “freemen,” which meant the barons, knights, and feudal lords and excluded commoners who were subjects of these freemen. Writers such as Dominic Selwood argue that the Magna Carta does not measure up to the importance we attach to it since it has been rewritten so many times and reduced to just three clauses. Oliver Cromwell, a parliamentarian, even went so far as to offensively dismiss the Magna Carta as Magna Farta.
Amidst these criticisms I reflected on my own personal thoughts on the Great Charter. I respect the Magna Carta due to the profoundness of the principles it enunciated. These principles were repeated in epic human struggles, and to be able to relate their existence to this document is perhaps the biggest reason. These principles -- the right to be free from unlawful detention, to be judged by one’s peers than by another class, the right for access to timely justice -- all are in tune with our conscience and strikes a chord in our understanding of right from wrong since time immemorial. However, the fact that they were all codified in one document affixed with the royal seal changed the dynamics which caused it to be carried forward till today.
My admiration of the Magna Carta led me to the quiet rustling forests at Runnymede, where I visited to find the Magna Carta Memorial built by the American Bar Association in honour of their own shared heritage. It is a monopteros supported by an eight-pillar colonnade, situated over few shallow steps in a forest clearing. The inside of the dome has been decorated with blue stars, and it houses a pillar of English granite stone on which is inscribed: “To commemorate Magna Carta, symbol of Freedom Under Law.”
There is a simple pathway leading up to the stairs with wooden benches on two sides, should anyone wish to ponder and reflect. It is a peaceful place and much different from what transpired in its midst 800 years ago -- the tension and negotiation and consternation of a national crisis. To ransom a king by holding London siege was tantamount to treason punishable by death, and to risk life for common good and justice was nothing less than selfless bravery.
In quiet remembrance, I thanked the brave barons for taking the initiative. The Magna Carta had been profound in its significance across nations and people of different races by providing a stepping-stone for lawmakers to draft rights recognised as civil liberties and thereby paved the way for these rights to flourish globally. What started as a reluctant compromise will exist as a timeless beacon of triumph, hope, and rule of law.
