2015 marks the eight hundredth anniversary of Magna Carta. This “Great Charter” of England is seen by many Americans as central to the development of our constitutional tradition. Ironically, the English do not share this high opinion of the document. For most English, perhaps especially most English politicians and constitutional lawyers, Magna Carta holds little if any interest, let alone importance. The reasons are relatively easy to explain and helpful in understanding why Americans do—and should—continue to value what their English brethren ignore.
In essence, the constitutional tradition so powerfully advanced by Magna Carta was subjugated in England during the early modern era and, while some aspects of that tradition were revived in later years, it was in America that they achieved much greater importance and stability than in England. And it is in America where the constitutional protections we still enjoy are under attack as part of an assault on due process and the multiplicity of authorities buttressed by Magna Carta.
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