Geoffrey Bindman QC tells the story of the Magna Carta & urges the government to learn its lessons
In June next year we will be commemorating the 800th anniversary of Magna Carta and several events are already being prepared, including an exhibition at the British Library. David Cameron has announced that he wants to use the anniversary as an opportunity for every child to learn about “the foundation of all our laws and values”. It is entirely right that this remarkable document should be celebrated. It remains highly relevant to our current situation.
Of course, the significance of Magna Carta cannot be understood from a literal reading of a document originally written in Latin in a very different world. Rather, its claim to be the cornerstone of our democracy rests on the acceptance over the intervening centuries of the fundamental principles that underlie some of its provisions. Magna Carta itself has been well described as a “messy constitutional compromise hammered out at Runnymede between King John and the barons.” The barons were the small group of rich landowners whose interests were threatened
