Happy Birthday, Magna Carta

Today is the 800th anniversary of the Magna Carta, which means the "Great Charter". Signed by King John of England on June 15, 1215, it was the first formal pronouncement that a King also had to follow the laws of the land.

The document, which was originally written in Latin, is available fully translated to English at the British Library website here. According to the British Library, three clauses of the Magna Carta continue to be law in England and, of these three clauses, the following clause is the most famous:

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 other way, nor will we proceed with force against him, or send others to do so, except by the lawful judgement of his equals or by the law of the land. To no one will we sell, to no one deny or delay right or justice.

The above-quoted clause has been credited with inspiring the Fifth Amendment to the United States Constitution, which provides that "no person shall . . . be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law."

Indeed, the Supreme Court frequently quotes the Magna Carta for this proposition. For Example:

The origin of the Due Process Clause is Chapter 39 of Magna Carta which declares that "No free man shall be taken, outlawed, banished, or in any way destroyed, nor will We proceed against or prosecute him, except by the lawful judgment of his peers and by the law of the land."

Duncan v. Louisiana, 391 U.S. 145, 169 (1968); see also Borough of Duryea v. Guarnieri, 131 S.Ct. 2488, 14 (2011) ("The right to petition traces its origins to Magna Carta, which confirmed the right of barons to petition the King," and today an "employer's allegedly retaliatory actions against an employee do not give rise to liability under the Petition Clause unless the employee's petition relates to a matter of public concern"); and Bmw of North America, Inc. v. Gore, 517 U.S. 559, 587 (1996) (addressing due-process challenges to a punitive damages award and referencing the constitutional concern that "itself harken[s] back to the Magna Carta").

If you'd like to read the full Magna Carta that is such inspiration for these United States laws in its original Latin (and if you have a magnifying glass handy), you can do so at the document below:

Photo courtesy the U.S. National Archives and Records Administration