New Publication: Magna Carta and its Modern Legacy

On the Magna Carta's 800th anniversary Robert Hazell and James Melton of the Constitution Unit have edited a volume on the Magna Carta and it's modern legacy. 

The contributors are Vernon Bogdanor, Anthony King, Roger Mortimore, Renée Lettow Lerner, Derek O'Brien, David Clark, Craig S. Lerner, Victor Menaldo, Nora Webb Williams, Geraldine Van Bueren, Nathalie Riendeau

About the book:
Magna Carta is celebrated around the world as a symbol of limited government and constitutionalism. But in 1215 Magna Carta was a failure, abrogated within months. Why then do we celebrate this piece of parchment? To mark the 800th anniversary this book brings together top scholars from the UK, US and Australia to answer this question and analyse Magna Carta's historic and contemporary influence. Using a political science framework, Magna Carta and its Modern Legacy draws from scholarship on influence and constitutional design to explain how parchment can contain executive power. Individual chapters on Britain discuss such topics as socioeconomic rights in Magna Carta; Magna Carta and the British constitution; and public understanding of the charter. Internationally focused chapters look at Magna Carta and jury trial in America, slavery in the Caribbean, court delays in the Pacific, the proportionality principle, and judicial supremacy.

• Includes a roster of leading scholars in political science disciplines
• Global scope examines the influence of the Magna Carta not only in the United Kingdom but also in the United States, the Caribbean, and the Pacific
• Challenges the conventional wisdom that the Magna Carta's impact has been wholly beneficial

Related Links

• Link to Cambridge Univeristy Press website
• A blog by James Meltion celebrating the birth (and death) of Magna Carta