WordBuilding:Government

Rights
The concept of human rights and constitutional law in general was very vague in almost all medieval societies.

Magna Carta
Magna Carta is one of those things historians and politicians squabble over. Politicians like the charter because it is old - providing a long history of rights for their countries to be proud of - and almost completely irrelevant to any modern day concern. In Britain it is held over the English Bill of Rights and the European Convention on Human Rights, both more modern texts setting out more concrete rights. Historians point this out, along with the self interest of the parties, a number of clauses that discriminate against Jews and women, and the fact that much of the original text was never enforced.

The truth probably lies in the middle of these two: yes the parties were self interested, yes many of the more radical clauses were later dropped, but some of these (clauses 39 and 40 in particular) remain fundamental to our conceptions of justice today.

Translations of the 1215 Magna Carta:


 * British Library
 * Legislation.gov.uk 's 1297 Statute Law Magna Carta - shows Magna Carta as still (sort of ) enforce today.
 * University of East Anglia's Manga Carta Project - this is a particularly useful one, as it lets you filter the clauses by subject and view a number of different commentaries for some of the clauses.
 * Magna Carta Plus - makes it clearer which bits were cut out and provides some interesting foot notes.