INTERNATIONAL LEGACY OF MAGNA CARTA
MAGNA CARTA 1215-2015
Examining the international legacy of Magna Carta on its 800th anniversary.
Sir Robert Worcester is the Chairman of the Magna Carta 800th
Anniversary
Commemoration Committee. He is Founder of MORI (Market & Opinion Research International) and now Senior Advisor of Ipsos MORI Public Affairs Research. He is a Past President of the World Association for Public Opinion Research (WAPOR). Sir Robert is former Chancellor of the University of Kent, and a Governor of the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE). He is Honorary Visting Professor at the Universities of Kent and Warwick. He is Chairman of the Pilgrims Society, a Governor of the English- Speaking Union, and a Trustee of the Magna Carta Trust among many other patronages and appointments. Sir Robert holds joint US and British citizenship.
A century ago, the 700th anniversary of the sealing of Magna Carta was not marked in 1915 due to the War. There was no commemoration other than in the excellent but long out-of- print Royal Historical Society produced book of Magna Carta Commemoration essays. While the war on terrorism goes on today, it is a far cry from the turmoil of the First World War in 1915, and reminds us that the link between the military and other security forces and Magna Carta is the defence of liberty and the rule of law in democratic societies, not autocratic or even royal dictatorships.
Magna Carta is England’s greatest export. It is embedded in both the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution of the United States of America and in the constitutions of most of the countries of the Commonwealth. Magna Carta affects the lives of nearly two billion people in over 100 countries throughout the world; for centuries it has influenced constitutional thinking worldwide including in many Commonwealth countries, as well as France, Germany, and Japan, and throughout Asia, Latin America and Africa. The values enshrined in the Magna Carta and its legacy is largely the reason for the existence of the ‘Special Relationship’ that bonds my
80 | The Parliamentarian | 2015: Issue Two
two countries, Britain and America. Two countries which have fought two world wars and many other, smaller conflicts shoulder to shoulder in defence of Liberty, ignoring the brief period during the late 18th early 19th
and centuries following
the War of Independence. President Obama observed in 2011 in a speech to the British Parliament: “Our system of justice, customs, and values stemmed from our British forefathers...Our relationship is special because of the values and beliefs that have united our people throughout the ages. Centuries ago, when kings, emperors, and warlords reigned over much of the world, it was the English who first spelled out the rights and liberties on man in Magna Carta.”
Over the past 800 years, it is denials of Magna Carta’s basic principles that have led to a loss of liberties, of human rights and even genocide taking place yesterday, and no doubt today and tomorrow. Its 800th anniversary is an opportunity to return to the principles of this exceptional document on which all democratic society has been constructed, described by the former German Ambassador when he said to me that everybody in Germany knows about the Magna Carta, it is ‘the foundation of democracy.’ As any parliamentarian will
be aware, its acknowledgement of limits on the authority of the monarch allowed the establishment of the power of Parliament, and so its anniversary holds particular meaning for those in Westminster and its international equivalents. The Commonwealth
Parliamentary Association’s UK Branch led the United Kingdom Parliament’s international commemorations with a conference entitled ‘Human Rights In the Modern Day Commonwealth: Magna Carta to Commonwealth Charter’ that took place in February 2015. Forty senior Commonwealth MPs, including five Speakers and four Deputy Speakers, convened at Westminster to evaluate human rights protections eight hundred years on from this seminal document. They also had the opportunity to view the four surviving copies, on display in Parliament together for probably the first time since 1215. The highlight of the
programme was a debate on modern human rights with Commonwealth Scholars and the Lord Speaker presiding; the current leaders and legislators of the Commonwealth arguing issues on morality and human rights with those of the future. The parliamentary participants and Commonwealth Scholars debated the motion ‘Can you
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