how the Magna Carta stiLL shapes our rights
Diversity Committee Co-Chairs: TimMartin – MartinLawOffice, P. A. & KatariBuck – AsiaticoLawLLC
If you are an attorney or if you work in the legal system, it is likely you’ ve heard of the Magna Carta. But the question is, do you know how much the Magna Carta shapes your rights today?
Recently, I was able to travel to England with my wife and daughter. I was impressed with the depth of knowledge that the local British citizens have of the Magna Carta which, unlike our Country’ s history of 250 years, goes back more than 800 years.
Rather than give you just a textbook version of the Magna Carta and its significance in our American lives today, I want to share with you the history of the Magna Carta as told to me by two
individuals— first our bus tour guide to Windsor Castle, and second the taxi driver who took us back to the airport for the long flight home. In the 12th Century, typically, only one person in a family was formally educated. The selected child was taught in Latin. So was it also true for King Richard I( known also as Richard the Lionheart) and his brother, King John.
King Richard I, the educated son, was always away on crusades in Normandy. He despised London and once said,“ I would sell London, if only I could find a buyer.”
While King Richard was away, his brother, John, acted as Region
without the Magna Carta, there would be no trial by jury of one’ s peers.
Leader. In that capacity, John punitively raised taxes to pay for the wars his brother waged. However, John made the mistake of not only increasing the taxes on the poor, but on the nobility as well( the echelon of society directly below the King).
In 1199, while on his way back from Normandy, King Richard was killed. His brother, John, became King. Over the next 16 years, King John’ s taxation of the noblemen finally reached a boiling point, and his noblemen took action.
While Windsor Castle had never been invaded, in 1215, the noblemen besieged the castle for
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