That in 2015, we still commemorate an agreement between the king and the barons of England reached 800 years ago, probably on the 15th June 1215, is a cause for wonder. Magna Carta, the Great Charter, as that agreement has come to be known, is held to be a milestone in the course of western constitutional thought. Its place in English jurisprudence is secure, but, while prominent, hardly matches the reverence it is shown on the other side of the Atlantic.
Among the range of subjects covered by Magna Carta, three stand out for their constitutional importance: liberty, the rule of law and due process in the administration of justice, and taxation. On liberty: Chapters 39 is most famous in protecting liberty from arbitrary arrest and related prejudice ‘save by the law of the land’. Property rights are associated with liberty and attract various forms of protection. The rule of law, from which due process of law follows, is also the subject of Chapter 39, as well as numerous other provisions. Taxation, the power of the government to tax, which is always central to constitutional thought, appears in several chapters, of which 12 and 14, being general limitations on the taxing power, are the most important.
The anniversary has prompted a fresh round of examination of Magna Carta and its influence not only in the UK and the USA but in many other places. My purpose here is different. It is prompted by a passage from a manifesto written in July 1646 by a group of Levellers. Called Remonstrance of Many Thousand Citizens, the manifesto, addressed to the House of Commons, describes the many grievances of the common people and proposes remedies. Freedom of conscience is foremost, followed closely by equality before the law, deprecating the ability of grandees and members of the House of Commons to avoid the normal sanctions of law. Additional concerns were imprisonment for debt and being pressed-into-military service.
