Magna Carta

[Dr Bunsen Honeydew]

On this day of us watching petty hi-fi forum dictators and kings excercising their power maliciously we should ponder the significance of today. The 800th anniversary of the signing of the document that seeded the modern world, well the modern democracies at least.

Many see it as *the* most important legal charter ever, even if flawed and very much a product of its time. From it came Parliament and of course the Common Law, still our most important contribution to Jurisprudence.

[joe]

'Have you forgotten Magna Carta? Did the poor girl die in vain?' (Tony Hancock, quoted from memory).

[Daniel Quinn]

I was once toying with a teenage relative who considered himself a bit of rebel .

he said , i only obey laws that i want to as they are just a tools of state oppression, we should have more common laws , laws of the common man .

It would have been remiss of me not to point out that that they are called common laws because they were the first laws that were common to all not regional and alas they have their origins within the ruling class and royalty of the time

[Dr Bunsen Honeydew]

That was the times Jammy, most have been repealed or changed by act. Before Magna Carta the only way to solve differences was to fight, be it joust or war, after there was an alternative, that is its importance. OK so we still had jousts (punch ups) and wars and still do but they are far less, and now reason has a chance over strength and power. Magna Carta led to the Commonwealth (Cromwellian), the Glorious Revolution, The French republican revolution (but they wont admit it), American independence and the bill of right and constitution, even indirectly the Russian revolution. And the worlds democracies and their legal systems are based on those, but luckily not based on the Russian one.