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What Was The Impact Of The Magna Carta

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As a result of civil unrest, the Magna Carta of 1215 not only documented the liberties held by “free men” but it was also the first document to enforce law upon the sovereign. Written in Latin and not in the best condition, the Magna Carta (or Great Charter) has succeeded to remain relevant to the cause of human rights today, eight centuries after it was scrawled onto sheep skin and affirmed with the sticky wax seal of the King John. Throughout this essay I will analysing the document and exploring the effects it had on society.
The Magna Carta was a turning point in history, with the initiation of human rights, one of legislations that was most significant was clause 39, ‘No free man shall be arrested or imprisoned … except by lawful judgment of his peers or by the law of the land.’ This deemed that imprisonment should not occur without a legal process, this reshaped the legal process and provoked the notion of trial by jury. Which effectively established the principle of the rule of law and protecting individuals from arbitrary punishment. In theory, this would of course have created a justice system, however the term ‘free man’ has its limitations as it only referred to the minority of the population of England at the time. Many of the people were unfree peasants known as ‘villeins’, who could only pursue justice through the courts of their own lords. This implies that that King John hoped the Charter would become no more than a toothless symbol of his generosity to the

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