Magna Carta, noted by Lord Denning as the “foundation of the freedom of the individual, against the arbitrary authority of the despot,” is the rudimentary charter that was most significant in the historical process that led to the rule of Constitutional Law in the United States and abroad. Drafted upon calfskin (vellum) by the Archbishop of Canterbury in 1215, and sealed in a watery meadow 20 miles west of central London in Runnymede, along the river Thames; Magna Carta was crafted in part to make peace between an unpopular King and a group of rebellious Barons, over heavy taxes and other abuses of power.
Consisting of 63 Articles or Chapters, none is more notable, or widely acknowledged as influential to the spirit of democracy and to the U.S. Bill of Rights, as Articles 39 and 40. These two Articles state in pertinent part, respectively, that “No freemen shall be taken or imprisoned or dis-seized or exiled or in any way destroyed, except by the lawful judgment of his peers by the law of the land,” and “To no one will we sell, to no one will we refuse or delay the right of justice.” These two principles encapsulate our modern day Sixth Amendment right to trial by jury and our Fifth and Fourteenth Amendments containing clauses that act as safeguards from the arbitrary denial of life, liberty and property by government outside sanction of law, otherwise known as Due Process.
