10 replies to this topic

[Babe Ruth]

http://tinyurl.com/cl2v83h

A British activist named Roger Hayes has asserted Magna Carta principles in objecting to and witholding of taxes in Britain.  He claims that since part of those taxes are being used in violation of a British law against terrorism, he witholds his tax payment until the wrong has been righted.

Yes Virginia, there still are some principled men in Britain.

Comments?

[ealdwita]

Only three 'clauses' out ot the original 37 of the 'Great Charter' are still part of English law.

Clause 1. The Freedom of the English Church
Clause 9. The 'Ancient Liberties' of the City of London
Clause 29. The right to 'Due Process' - (The legal requirement that the State must uphold all of the legal rights of the individual.)

So I think Mr.Hayes ought to do a bit of research before trying to invoke an historical document that even in its original 1215 form made no mention of individual taxation!

Edited by ealdwita, 04 July 2012 - 01:47 PM.

[Colonel Rhuairidh]

Magna Carta was nothing to do with "Democracy" or the Rights of the Individual or any of that socialistic stuff; it was basically the Barons extrorting whatever they could out of poor old King John. It was hardly a prototype for the Declaration of Independence or anything like that.

[Babe Ruth]

Interesting.

By what mechanism did they repeal Magna Carta?

[Colonel Rhuairidh]

I don't think it was ever repealed as such, it just became less & less relevant as fedualism declined and the Barons lost power, I suppose. It was all designed very much with the interests of a small clique in power in mind rather than the People.

[ealdwita]

Babe Ruth, on 04 July 2012 - 01:52 PM, said:

Interesting.

By what mechanism did they repeal Magna Carta?

There were several repeal Acts of various kinds dating from the first one in 1828. Most of them were known as Statute Law (Revision) Acts, others were the Administration of Estates Acts, Civil Repeal Procedure Acts, Criminal Law Acts,  and the Crown Proceedings Acts. Separate Parliamentary Acts were put in place in respect of N.Ireland in parallel.

Dates - 1862, 1872, 1863, 1872, 1879, 1887, 1925, 1947, 1948, and 1969.

(I may have forgotten a couple - but I doubt it matters to anyone but a boring old fart like me!)

Edited by ealdwita, 04 July 2012 - 02:48 PM.

[Babe Ruth]

Thanks for that Ealdwita.    You sound like a professor or something.

So is it safe to say that with those various dates you cited, the Common Law became a thing of the past?

[ealdwita]

Babe Ruth, on 04 July 2012 - 05:24 PM, said:

Thanks for that Ealdwita.    You sound like a professor or something.

So is it safe to say that with those various dates you cited, the Common Law became a thing of the past?

Professor would have been nice, BR, but I only managed 'Senior Lecturer', I'm afraid.

Contrary to to popular belief, Magna Carta had nothing to do with Common Law. I'm not an expert in Law, but from a Historian's point of view, the concept of Common Law began in the 800's AD with Alfred the Great's 'Doom Book' (don't confuse that with the much later Norman Domesday Book - completely different!) which brought together the existing laws of Mercia, Wessex and Kent - the 3 'Great Kingdoms' of the early Medieval period.

Henry II kick-started the process again in 1154 and since that time, Common Law has been evolving over the centuries on an almost case-by-case basis!

What was dissolved in the 19th.Cent. was the 'Court of Common Pleas' (but that's another story.) Suffice it to say that Magna Carta was more for the benefit of the 'Bosses' than the man-in-the-street.

I think we'd better leave it there, as I can become ultra-boring and start wandering off down dusty passageways of my brain that haven't been used for years! If you have any specific questions though, I'd be more than happy to tackle them for you.

[Junior Chubb]

Is this related to the 'Freeman on the land' state of mind I keep hearing my friends babble on about?

[hetrodoxly]

ealdwita, on 04 July 2012 - 06:27 PM, said:

Professor would have been nice, BR, but I only managed 'Senior Lecturer', I'm afraid.

Contrary to to popular belief, Magna Carta had nothing to do with Common Law. I'm not an expert in Law, but from a Historian's point of view, the concept of Common Law began in the 800's AD with Alfred the Great's 'Doom Book' (don't confuse that with the much later Norman Domesday Book - completely different!) which brought together the existing laws of Mercia, Wessex and Kent - the 3 'Great Kingdoms' of the early Medieval period.

Henry II kick-started the process again in 1154 and since that time, Common Law has been evolving over the centuries on an almost case-by-case basis!

What was dissolved in the 19th.Cent. was the 'Court of Common Pleas' (but that's another story.) Suffice it to say that Magna Carta was more for the benefit of the 'Bosses' than the man-in-the-street.

I think we'd better leave it there, as I can become ultra-boring and start wandering off down dusty passageways of my brain that haven't been used for years! If you have any specific questions though, I'd be more than happy to tackle them for you.

would i be right in saying Anglo Saxons had a pretty good legal system.

[ealdwita]

hetrodoxly, on 04 July 2012 - 10:06 PM, said:

would i be right in saying Anglo Saxons had a pretty good legal system.

Yes, you would. In fact, the Jutish law of 'Gavelkind' wasn't abolished in Kent until 1925!