Legal Dictionary of Pakistan

Magna Carta

[Latin "great charter"] The English charter that King John granted to the barons in 1215 and that Henry III and Edward I later confirmed. ( It is generally regarded as one of the great common-law documents and as the foundation of constitutional liberties. The other three great charters of English liberty are the Petition of Right (3 Car. (1628)), the Habeas Corpus Act (31 Car. 2 (1679)), and the Bill of Rights (1 Will. & M. (1689)). - Also spelled Magna Charta. "The history of Magna Carta is the history not only of a document but also of an argument. The history of the document is a history of repeated re-interpretation. But the history of the argument is a history of a continuous element of political thinking. In this light there is no inherent reason why an assertion of law originally conceived in aristocratic interests should not be applied on a wider scale." J.C. Holt, Magna Carta 16 (1965).