Known as the “Great Charter,” it is widely considered the foundation of parliamentary democracy, human rights and the supremacy of the law over the crown. Lincoln Castle in England, where the finest originals of the Magna Carta and the charters of English liberty are kept in a lockstone vault.
Peter Linebaugh talking:
No free man shall be seized or imprisoned, or stripped of his rights … or outlawed or exiled, or deprived of his standing in any other way, nor will we proceed with force against him, or send others to do so, except by the lawful judgement of his peers and the law of the land.” those are the words from which habeas corpus, prohibition of torture, trial by jury and due process of law have stemmed from the last 800 years.
It was an armistice, and it was about 20 inches by six inches. I just saw it recently. It is an armistice that concluded a civil war in England. Bad King John had squeezed the people of the forests of England for their money in order to recover lands in France and in order to enhance his own coffers. In reaction to that, the barons of England resisted. It was basically a conflict within the English ruling class, church and state. In fact, it was written in good part by Stephen Langton, the archbishop of Canterbury. However, both the big charter and the little charter depend and recognize the 90 percent of the people of England who were serfs and poor people and foresters and commoners. Amy, it took about 40 serfs to produce the food just for one horse of those barons and those knights. So while it was a document settling scores in the ruling class, that ruling class had to recognize the principle of the commons and had to recognize—well, in fact, it abolished capital punishment for killing of deer in the forests of England, a great step forward. It prohibited the disparagement of women. Its seventh chapter called for estovers of the widow in the common. Basically, it meant that she could have her fuel, she could have tools, she could have repairs for her house from the forest. And remember that the forest and woods, that was the petroleum of that epoch. That is, so many materials, so much wealth came exclusively from wood. So, for a woman or a widow, in particular, to have access to the commons meant survival.
habeas corpus was a sheriff’s writ, and it just meant “giveth the body.” That’s the Latin. But a few hundred years ago, English law began to see this writ as a principle deriving from that chapter which I read to you, that you can’t—that sovereignty cannot seize a person or imprison them or send force against them except by judgment of their equals or, you know, a trial by jury. This pertains to the people in Guantánamo Bay who have not had a charge. There’s been no indictment. No criminal law has been violated. The state has not been forced to explain itself. Certainly, they’ve not had a trial. So even the U.S. Supreme Court, in a case called Boumediene, referred to Magna Carta as being violated by this practice.
As concerns Black Lives Matter and the movement, that so far, I think, this year 464 people have been killed by the police, this is sending force against people without trial by jury, not in accordance with the law of the land. And so, when Black Lives Matter began, after the—last August, after the killing of Michael Brown, many of us remembered that slavery itself came to an end thanks to Frederick Douglass’ references to Magna Carta. So Magna Carta has played a major role in American history in the freedom struggle led by former slaves and the African-American population. This is why Black Lives Matter is so important, not only against the racist power structure and the forms of white supremacy that exist in so many ruling institutions, but it’s also a recovery of this long tradition of struggling against sovereignty in the name of habeas corpus, trial by jury and prohibition of torture.
it’s significant for another reason, which we’ve seen. The Guardian newspaper is now crowdsourcing the police killings. In other words, the FBI and the federal government is incapable and has neglected to keep count of those whom authority has slaughtered or has killed. Now, The Guardian is showing us—an English newspaper is taking the lead in providing us with this important information of state killings.
The Magna Carta is not just the foundation of our liberties in restricting sovereignty, but it’s also a place where, if we read it carefully, we can see a principle for our future. And that principle is the principle of the commons, which you will find in a little charter, the Charter of the Forest. The common principle is that subsistence is available for all. The common principle is that of mutuality. The common principle is not of competition, but is of cooperation. And this principle may also be found in the charters of English liberty.
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Peter Linebaugh, people’s historian, retired from the University of Toledo. He is the author of The Magna Carta Manifesto: Liberties and Commons for All.
— source democracynow.org