Why is the Magna Carta important to Australia

On 15 June 1215 at Runnymede, King John agreed, under oath, to the Magna Carta, the Great Charter, and sometimes also called the Magna Carta libertatum, the Great Charter of Liberties.  It was first sealed on 19 June 1215 and then distributed widely.

This massive document was revised several times - reissued in 1216, revised in 1217 and 1225, and a 1297 version was brought into English law virtually unchanged from the 1225 version. One of only four of the authentic copies of the 1297 version remains in the custody of the Australian Parliament. This copy is on display to the public with an excellent series of information and education panels.

The importance of the principles enunciated in the Magna Carta cannot be underestimated. Magna Carta has influenced common and constitutional law as well as political representation and the development of Parliament.

The original charter embodies the principles underpinning the emergence of parliamentary democracy and the legal system in the UK, in the free world more generally, and especially in Australia: limiting arbitrary power, curbing the right to levy taxation without consent, holding the Executive to account, and affirming the rule of law.

In our Australian democracy these are principles are too often taken for granted, and often not fully understood. They are the foundation stones of our major institutions, notably our Parliament and our Courts. Magna Carta and the freedoms it espouses are also fundamental to the values we have cherished for centuries.  And they are values that should unite us all, especially as these days they are being challenged by those opposed to the rule of law.

To find out more visit:

http://www.magnacarta.org.au/

For Teachers

What is the meaning of Liberty? Why should a King operate within the Law?

Teaching idea:

As a class or groups conduct a survey of students in the school asking what rules should be in place for the whole school and what rights the members of the school community should be entitled to. Once the survey has been conducted groups should create their own "Great Charter" that could be presented to the Principal for signing on the 800th Anniversary of the Magna Carta on the 15th June 2015....read more

The first version of the Magna Carta, written in 1215, was a peace treaty between King John of England and his barons. It established the principle that all people, including the king, had rights and responsibilities under the law.

Prior to the Magna Carta, King John had absolute power as a feudal monarch. He gave the barons their titles and estates - lands - in return for their loyalty. King John was a cruel tyrant, who expected the barons to give him money and troops to fight a long war with France. The barons had to tax their people harshly to pay for the war and force men from their estates to fight in the ongoing conflict.

By 1215 the barons were fed up with the King's behaviour and many rebelled against him. They seized the Tower Of London and demanded the King listen to them. In June, in a meadow at Runnymede, the King and the barons met and agreed on the terms of the Magna Carta. As was common practice, the document was copied, fixed with the king's seal and sent to all parts of the kingdom to be read to the people, many of whom were illiterate.

In return for the barons pledging loyalty to King John, the Magna Carta limited the king's power, with most of the document detailing the rights of the barons under the feudal system. However, it also described the rule of law, including the important point that the king was subject to the law, like all other people. Individual rights and liberties were defined, with one of the most notable sections reading:

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 following years

Almost immediately, King John ignored the Magna Carta and broke his agreement with the barons. He died in 1216 and his 9 year old son, Henry lll, became the king. As he grew, Henry's guardians made 3 more editions of the Magna Carta in an attempt to win back the support of the barons. Some changes were made but many of the original ideas stayed the same.

In 1225 King Henry lll issued the fourth, and heavily revised, version of the Magna Carta, in return for a kingdom-wide grant of tax. As his father had before him, the king fought with the barons. In 1264 Simon de Montford, a baron, overthrew the king and became the ruler. De Montford believed that the king's power should be limited. He called together knights and non-noble representatives from across the kingdom to meet in a parliament. Although it would be many years before parliament met regularly and included commoners in its ranks, the idea of the modern parliament had begun.

In 1265 de Montford was killed on the battlefield by King Henry's son, Edward, who succeeded his father as king in 1272. Throughout the 1200s, the Magna Carta was increasingly quoted as laws were made and petitions were prepared against the unfair use of power.

1297 Inspeximus edition

Edward l ordered an Inspeximus edition of the Magna Carta be reissued in 1297, so called because it inspected and approved the document signed by the previous king. In this edition, King Edward declared that the Magna Carta would from then on be a part of common law and that any court judgements that went against it would be 'undone and holden for naught'.

Legacy

Although written in medieval England, the Magna Carta's significance has continued to the present. In its original edition, it mainly focussed on the troubled relationship between a feudal king and his barons. However, the Magna Carta's enduring legacy has been its statement of the basic rights and liberties of people under the law. This principle, first written into a document 800 years ago, has been developed and strengthened over the centuries, influencing documents as diverse as the 1776 US Declaration of Independence, the 1901 Australian Constitution and the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

Perhaps 24 copies of the various editions of Magna Carta remain in existence, mostly held in English libraries or public collections. Parliament House in Canberra has on public display one of only two copies of the original 1297 Inspeximus edition held outside England.

Is the Magna Carta still relevant today in Australia?

Why is the Magna Carta so important today?

What is the connection between the Magna Carta and the Australian Constitution?

How did the Magna Carta change English and thus Australian law?