Happy Birthday, Great Charter

Or, as it's more often called, Magna Carta.

It's fitting that this weeks' defense of the key right of habeas corpus - a prisoner's right to make the state prove it has a reason to lock him up - should have come so close to the anniversary of the Magna Carta's signing, on this day in 1215.

"Magna Carta Libertatum (Great Charter of Freedoms), is an English charter originally issued in 1215. It required the King to renounce certain rights, respect certain legal procedures and accept that his will could be bound by the law. It explicitly protected certain rights of the King's subjects, whether free or fettered — most notably the writ of habeas corpus, allowing appeal against unlawful imprisonment.

Magna Carta was the most significant early influence on the extensive historical process that led to the rule of constitutional law today. Magna Carta influenced the development of the common law and many constitutional documents, such as the United States Constitution. "

The image here is a copy of the Charter from 1297, confirmed by Edward I, owned privately and now again on display at the US National Archives.