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Sir Edward Coke 1552-1634

UNIT 1

LAWS IN OLD ENGLAND

here are a great many laws in old England. Currently there are 358 volumes of statutes at large and general public acts, occupying 22 shelves in the British Library, while there are another 682 volumes of local, personal and private acts, occu­pying another 50 shelves, plus a further 32 shelves of statutory instruments.

The situation was summed up in the last century by Sir Cecil Carr: 'As a collection our statute bookmight be summed up as beyond the average citizen's pocket to purchase, beyond his bookshelves to accommodate, beyond his leisure to study and beyond his intellect to comprehend.' And he ought to have known – Carr was the Chairman of the Statute Law Committee which began trying to tidy up the laws of old England at the end of the Second World War. Even now the job is far from over.

1.1 Magna Carta

Magna Carta is such a fellow,

That he will have no sovereign.

Sir Edward Coke 1552-1634

But surely the basis of English law is Magna

Carta, the foun­dation of liberty in Britain,

Ireland, America and the Com­monwealth. A

basic document that states the liberties

guaranteed to the English people, Magna Carta

proclaims rights that have become a part of English law and are now the foundation of the constitution of every English-speaking nation. Magna Carta, which means ‘great charter’ in latin, was drawn up by English barons and churchmen, who forced the tyrannical King John to set his seal to it on June 15, 1215. By doing this he agreed that limits could be set on royal powers. Later, especially in the seventeenth century, the document was seen as a statement of basic civil rights. Four copies of the original document still exist.

In a war with the French King Philip II, King John lost Normandy and almost all his other possessions in France. Ever since the loss of Normandy he had been building up a coalition of rulers in Germany to assist him against the French king. His plans for a campaign in Poitou proved very unpopular in England, especially with the barons. King John’s efforts had been very expensive. He taxedhis barons and the English church heavily. In addition John leviedmassive reliefs (inheritance duties) on some barons: Nicholas de Stuteville, for example, was charged 10,000 marks (about 6,666 pounds) to inherit his brother’s lands. The king’s cruelty and greed united the powerful feudal nobles and the churchmen against him. Besides, the fact alone that King John, unlike his predecessors on the throne, spent most of his time in England made his rule more cruel. While the king was waging a disastrous war in France, the leading barons of England met secretly and swore to compel him to respect the rights of his subjects. In 1214 King John’s allies were defeated at Bouvines, and the king’s own campaign in Poitou broke up. John had to withdraw and return home to face his annoyed barons.

Resistance sprang from the northern barons who had opposed King John’s war in France, and by the spring of 1215 many others had joined them in protest against John’s abuseor disregard of law. Under threat of civil war King John was compelled to negotiate and on June 15 he accepted the baronial terms embodied in a document known as the Articles of the Barons,on the basis of which Magna Carta was drawn up. During the next several days the document went through further changes and improvements, and the final version of Magna Carta was accepted by the king and the barons on June 19.



English Great Charter, the charter of English liberties, granted by King John in 1215 under threat of civil war, was reissued with alteration in 1216, 1217, and 1225. In many of their demands the barons and bishops who forced Magna Carta on the king quite naturally acted in their own best interests. Careful provisionwas made for limiting royal taxes and assessments. The level of reliefs, for example, was set at 100 pounds for a barony. But it also aimed to provide protection for all freemen. It ensured law and provided certain guarantees for reforming judicial procedures. The celebrated clause 39, which promised judgmentby a fair trial, became a symbol of protection against unjust punishment and of threatened liberties and rights.

‘No Freeman shall be taken or imprisoned, or be deprived of his Freehold, or liberties, or free Customs, or be outlawed, or exiled, or any otherwise 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.’

The document also includes provisions that protect the rights of the church and merchants. ‘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.’

‘All merchants shall be able to go out of and come into England safely and securely and stay and travel throughout England… for buying and selling …free from all evil tolls, except in time of war and if they are of the land at war with us.’

Magna Carta is regarded as one of the most notable documents in history. The rights it listed were, in the main, feudal rights of justice and property that had been recognized by previous kings; but now for the first time these rights were insisted upon against the king’s will. Thus an important principle was established – that the king himself must govern according to law. In later years, whenever a king overextended his powers, the people could remind him of Magna Carta, ‘the cornerstone of English liberties’.

 


Date: 2016-01-14; view: 1296


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