Synopsis
The Magna Carta, issued in 1215 by King John. 'No free man shall be seized or imprisoned, or stripped of his rights or possessions ... except by the lawful judgement of his peers...To no one will we sell, to no one deny or delay right or justice.' Although not originally intended as a bill of rights, Magna Carta was used in these terms whenever people's liberties were challenged and is celebrated today as England's eary form of democracy. The continuing symbolic significance of Magna Carta was shown when the universal Declaration of Human Rights was presented to the United Nations in 1948 as a 'Magna Carta for the future'.
