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Business - Law
Magna Carta
The Magna Carta is one of the most important early law documents in history. King John of Great Britain created the Magna Carta in 1215 after he lost a major attempt to take back lands in France, which was quite costly to his country. His barons demanded that he create a document that set out to define the laws that governed England, including the rights of all its inhabitants and "due process." At the time, the document really did not intend to grant rights to all the English, but it did grant rights to all "Freemen," which later was interpreted as all the English people.
Initially, the barons demanded the document to ensure that the king could not tax them out of hand, or demand special taxes or funds (called scutages), if they did not support his policies. This is exactly what John tried to do after his disastrous fight in France. However, the document came to mean much more than that, and began to be held up as a model for other countries hoping to create more democratic and equal laws and policies. The barons had hoped to protect their own families and lands, but the document actually came to protect all the English, and was used as a model for the United States Constitution nearly six hundred years later. It is also the foundation document for the British Constitution.
The document also introduced the concept of "majority rule," which would not actually be enforced until much later. The document, written during feudal times, was meant to control the king while ensuring the upper-class barons could retain their station and place in English society. However, because the document was so far-reaching, it remained in effect long after John's death in 1216. John's son, Henry III, reconfirmed the document in 1217, with some slightly different wording. Several other kings continued this tradition, with the 1225 version being the one we know today.
References
Editors. "The Magna Carta." National Archives & Records Administration. 2007. 15 Sept. 2007. http://www.archives.gov/exhibits/featured_documents/magna_carta/legacy.html
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