Many legal experts have praised the Magna Carta as establishing the rule of law. The rights that King John agreed to included freedom from high taxes and the right to own property. The Magna Carta also created a council of 25 barons to advise the king. Another signiýcant clause related to legal entitlements before the courts. Clause 39 read: No free man shall be arrested or imprisoned . . . or outlawed or exiled or in any way victimised, neither will we attack him or send anyone to attack him, except by the lawful judgement of his peers or by the law of the land. This limited the king’s power to imprison people unfairly. It started the idea of independent courts and trial by jury. This can be seen in the words ‘lawful judgement of (one’s) peers’. A person’s peers are those considered to be their ‘equals’ in society.
13.3 SkillBuilder activity EVALUATING, CONCLUDING AND DECISION-MAKING Refer to FIGURE2 in lesson 13.2 and FIGURE4 in this lesson.
FIGURE4 When the rule of law is absent, our rights and freedoms are no longer protected.
Censorship & punishment for criticising government
Public gathering banned
Inaccessible courts, no access to legal processes
Retrospective, unknowable, laws
Presumed guilty or punished without trial
Unfair trials and
Forced confessions or justice ignored
biased judges
Tyranny or laws which allow uncontrolled use of power
Anarchy
1. Explain the difference between the two pyramids. 2. a. Match two elements in the two pyramids to investigate in more detail. b. Explain what the element means under the rule of law and what would change if the rule of law did not exist. 3. Create a cartoon to illustrate the importance of the rule of law.
TOPIC13 Laws and citizens 485
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