Constitutional Justice: Lessons from Magna Carta

Sir Anthony Clarke, Master of the Rolls (2005-09)

This article was first published in June 2008

In this 2008 Magna Carta lecture, Sir Anthony Clarke examines constitutional justice - the power of courts to review and potentially invalidate legislation against a higher fundamental law - contrasting the strong judicial-review models of the United States and South Africa with the United Kingdom’s tradition of parliamentary sovereignty. 

Clarke argues that the UK has no written constitution or equivalent fundamental law capable of limiting Parliament; candidates such as the Act of Union, the European Communities Act 1972, the Human Rights Act 1998 and even Magna Carta itself fail because each can be repealed by ordinary statute, while common-law constitutionalism is historically unsupported. 

Although Chapter 29 of Magna Carta continues to embody enduring principles of due process and the rule of law, Clarke concludes that any move toward stronger judicial review must arise through open democratic debate and genuine consent, not judicial self-empowerment, lest the separation of powers and the independence of the judiciary - Magna Carta’s greatest gifts - be undermined.

Click here to read the full article.

Magna Carta and Comparative Bills of Rights in Europe

Maya Hertig Randall, Professor of Constitutional Law at Geneva University, LL.M. (Cambridge)

This article was first published in November 2015 as part of the 800th commemoration activities.

The aim of this short contribution is not to trace the actual – direct or indirect – influence of the Magna Carta on the constitutions and their Bill of Rights of the various Member States of the Council of Europe. Such endeavour would be a daunting task indeed. Ideas travel across space and time; they evolve, are reinterpreted and transformed in this process... The contemporary relevance of the Magna Carta is not only dependent on its direct or indirect imprint on modern constitutions. The Magna Carta hugely matters because of its symbolic value, and because its ideas still resonates with us today. I will adopt a contemporary reading of the Magna Carta, highlighting its resonance and the principles it has come to embody. This approach treats the Magna Carta like a living tree, and not as a document the meaning of which is fixed in time. Put differently, it rejects an originalist reading, privileging a dynamic interpretation. This is an approach many domestic Courts – and most prominently the European Court of Human Rights – adopt when they are called upon to construe the meaning of fundamental rights provisions.

To read the full article, click here.

Magna Carta Miscellany

The Magna Carta 1225 exhibition took place in 2025 at the Society of Antiquaries of London in Burlington House. The temporary exhibition ran for three months, to mark 800 years since King Henry III reissued what most historians consider to be the definitive version of the famous legal charter.

This online display responds to questions that emerged during the exhibition run. Click here to discover more about Magna Carta, together with highlights from across the Society’s collections that explore and uncover fascinating stories relating to social hierarchy, rights and freedoms, the role of women, and the enduring legacy of the Charter in popular imagination.

Magna Carta's American Adventure

Professor A.E. Dick Howard

This is an educated transcript of an address delivered at the opening banquet of the North Carolina Law Review symposium, Celebrating 800 Years of Magna Carta, on 1st October 2015. We are reproducing the text as part of our series of articles celebrating Magna Carta’s influence in the United States.

I spent a good part of the summer of 2015 in England, lecturing on aspects of Magna Carta. It seemed that every town, village, or crossroads with any connection to Magna Carta was celebrating the Charter's eight hundredth anniversary. It's not surprising to hear about celebrations in the country that gave birth to Magna Carta. But the question I want to put before you tonight is: why should Americans care? After all, Magna Carta’s origins were a long time ago, in a very distant place, born of a struggle between King John and the barons. Why would an American remember Magna Carta?

When I was very small, one of the authors whose books I came to love was A. A. Milne. You Winnie the Pooh buffs will know about Milne. Perhaps you know Milne's Now We Are Six. One of the poems in the collection is "King John's Christmas." It begins,

King John was not a good man

He had his little ways.

And sometimes no one spoke to him

For days and days and days.

To read the full article, click here.

The US-UK Special Relationship: Past Present Future

In this anniversary year of American independence, the American Bar Association (ABA) will be holding its autumn conference in London from 23rd - 25th September. The theme of the conference will be “the US -UK special relationship: past present future”. The ABA’s International Law Section has over 13,000 members drawn from 100 countries and lists amongst its dedicated objectives education and the upholding of the rule of law.  Delegates from the conference will be visiting The ABA Memorial at Runnymede for which the Magna Carta Trust acts as custodian and will be accompanied by the chairman who will present a short history of the Trust and the site. Information about the conference can be found here.

Magna Carta in Parliamentary Debates

A good illustration of the contemporary relevance of the principles enshrined in Magna Carta is provided by the current controversy surrounding the Court's and Tribunals Bill. The proposed legislation reduces the entitlement to trial by jury, a proposal which has generated a great deal of debate, not least in the House of Commons where the Bill is currently being considered by MPs. In the course of debate so far there have been no less than 13 references to the Charter, including by the Lord Chancellor and Secretary of State for Justice, David Lammy.  An able testament to the enduring importance of the principles which the Charter established.

Magna Carta to UN SDG16: Keynote Speech by Lord Neuberger

To mark the  2025 anniversary of the issue of the 1225 Magna Carta and the importance of UN Sustainable Development Goal 16, the Trust co-operated with the organising Sheriff of the City of London in the production of an event at which former Master of the Rolls and Supreme Court President Lord Neuberger reflected on the enduring nature of the Charter’s principles.  The link to the speech is here together with the research paper on the economic legacy of Magna Carta produced for the event. This was the first in a series of Justice for All events which will run through 2026. Details of the series and how to attend them are available at the Justice for All website.

See Lincoln’s Magna Carta

Magna Carta is known as the first charter to limit the power of the king and to uphold the rights of the individual. Lincoln Cathedral owns one of the four original 1215 Magna Carta. It is on display, as a permanent loan, at Lincoln Castle in the David P J Ross Magna Carta Vault, alongside the 1217 Charter of the Forest and other historical documents. Lincoln Castle is now the only place in the world where an original 1215 Magna Carta and 1217 Charter of the Forest can be seen side by side. Alongside the vault is an underground widescreen cinema with 210 degree wraparound screen and 3D sound. The Bishop of Lincoln, Hugh of Wells, was present at Runnymede, along with Lincolnshire’s Cardinal Archbishop Stephen Langton. 12th century Lincoln was a place of learning and Langton is credited with influencing the terms of the charter. Click for more information on the Cathedral and Castle.

Rule of Law Index 2025

The World Justice Project’s 2025 Rule of Law Index will be launched at a Livestream event on 28th October 2025. To find out more and register to attend, please click here.

Magna Carta and Comparative Bills of Rights in Europe

Maya Hertig Randall, Professor of Constitutional Law at Geneva University, LL.M. (Cambridge)

This article was first published in November 2015 as part of the 800th commemoration activities.

The aim of this short contribution is not to trace the actual – direct or indirect – influence of the Magna Carta on the constitutions and their Bill of Rights of the various Member States of the Council of Europe. Such endeavour would be a daunting task indeed. Ideas travel across space and time; they evolve, are reinterpreted and transformed in this process... The contemporary relevance of the Magna Carta is not only dependent on its direct or indirect imprint on modern constitutions. The Magna Carta hugely matters because of its symbolic value, and because its ideas still resonates with us today. I will adopt a contemporary reading of the Magna Carta, highlighting its resonance and the principles it has come to embody. This approach treats the Magna Carta like a living tree, and not as a document the meaning of which is fixed in time. Put differently, it rejects an originalist reading, privileging a dynamic interpretation. This is an approach many domestic Courts – and most prominently the European Court of Human Rights – adopt when they are called upon to construe the meaning of fundamental rights provisions.

To read the full article, click here.  click here