By Lord Woolf
The Lord Chief Justice of England and Wales
Royal Holloway, University of London, Surrey
In Brief
790 years ago, John, the King of England was having a little local difficulty with his barons. His attempts to defend his extensive dominions across the Channel, including Normandy and a considerable proportion of western France, had been a disaster. This was despite the exorbitant demands that he had made of his subjects. The taxes he had imposed were extortionate. There had been ruthless reprisals against defectors. The administration of justice for which he was responsible could with generosity be described as capricious. Instead of depending on the traditional establishment for his advisers and confidants, John looked to “new men”, who wielded immense power. Today no doubt the media would describe them as “John's cronies”. In the world of politics, little changes.
John's barons became increasingly disaffected. They knew John needed their support for his further military adventures in France. Not to lose an opportunity, in January 1215, the barons collectively decided upon industrial action. They insisted that, as a condition of their support, John execute a charter that recognised their liberties as a safeguard against further arbitrary behaviour on the part of the King.
In order to press home their cause, the barons took up arms against the King. In May 1215 they captured London. England was on the brink of being engulfed in civil war. Instead of allowing this to happen, both sides of the dispute behaved in an exemplary manner. If they had been litigants before our courts, they would have received my unqualified commendation for deciding to rely on Alternative Dispute Resolution, or as lawyers say today ADR, as an alternative to battle to the death.
On the 10th of June 1215, they met at Runnymede and, in the meadow, compromised their differences and agreed terms which were outlined in the Articles of the Barons to which the King's great seal was attached on 15th June 1215. The immediate result was that the barons renewed their oath of allegiance and once more supported the King in his endeavours in France.
You can settle disputes but there is no guarantee the settlement will be honoured. In the past Pope Innocent III had his own disputes with John. John had refused to accept the Pope's candidate, Stephen Langton, as Archbishop of Canterbury when the previous archbishop died. Relations between the Pope and John broke down and John was for a time excommunicated by the Pope. However, John had by the time of the meeting with the Barons at Runnymede already settled his dispute with the Pope and had been rehabilitated. Langton had become Archbishop and had played a part in creating the Charter.
However, no sooner was the Charter sealed than Innocent III, encouraged by John, intervened. He condemned the Charter as exacted by extortion and declared it was of no validity whatsoever.
John needed no more encouragement not to observe the Charter into which he had freely entered. John reneged on his commitments to surrender castles, borrowed money to hire foreign troops, and rallied his forces to subdue the nobles. Fortunately for us and for history John was prevented by ill health from pursuing his plans and his early death in October 1216 put an end to his double dealing. The Charter survived and this, for those times, was a remarkable outcome.
But this does not explain why we are gathered here today, precisely 790 years after the document which in due course became known as Magna Carta was sealed, or why we are due to reconvene annually over the next 9 years until 2015, the 800th Anniversary of what happened in Runnymede in June 1215.
What I have said enables me to bring to a conclusion the first of the ten lectures on the relevance of Magna Carta today.
Last year, all around the world in both the civil and common law jurisdictions, including this country, celebrations were held to mark the bi-centenary of the Code Civile. The Code Civile is the procedural code which has served civil jurisdictions so well for 200 years. In the common law world, there is nothing comparable to the Code Civile. Even if there had been, it is doubtful whether we would have celebrated it in the same way as France did. The French rightly saw the Code Civile as part of France's contribution to the legal systems of the world.
Hitherto, we have not sufficiently promoted the contribution of this country to the establishment of a world governed by the rule of law. The common law has spread and provided a contribution to justice, day in and day out, to about one third of the population of the world. It has influenced other systems of justice. There is no code to which we can draw attention.
However, Magna Carta is a symbol for the values of the common law. Magna Carta is also remarkable because it is such a historic statement of the fundamental principles of the rule of law.
The solution to a little local difficulty 790 years ago has become more important today than it has ever been. It is important that its 8th centenary should be celebrated in a manner that is worthy of what was achieved in Runnymede on the 15th June 1215. While I do not congratulate the Trust and Royal Holloway on their choice of the first speaker, I do commend their efforts to ensure the 8th Centenary will mark the important contributions of this country to establishing the rule of law which I have attempted to identify.
Paneir's view:
You can view this wonderful article at http://www.malaysianbar.org.my/constitutional_law/magna_carta_a_precedent_for_recent_constitutional_change.html
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