Talk:Magna Carta

	This Law related article has not received a brainstar for quality. Please consider expanding the article appropriately. See RationalWiki:Article rating for more information.

Still relevant clauses of the Magna Carta

Three bits of MC are still valid (trial by one's equals, the freedom of the church, and the autonomy of London - how Boris MP and before him the Newt MP are affected by this is anybody's guess). 85.115.54.202 (talk) 17:22, 25 June 2015 (UTC)

The ideas are still used, and updated, but I don't think they are still valid from this document. It's like saying Hammurabi's code is still valid because murder was illegal then as it is now. Some things are fairly universally good ideas. -EmeraldCityWanderer (talk) 17:38, 25 June 2015 (UTC)

Clause 39, clause 1, clause 9, and standardisation of weights and measures. 85.115.54.202 (talk) 16:23, 7 July 2016 (UTC)

@EmeraldCityWanderer: I know this is a few years late, but... Most of the other clauses of Magna Carta have been superseded by acts that revoke or modify them, meaning they no longer apply even if the same basic ideas are still true in British law, but the three clauses mentioned by the IP have not, and still have legal force. The special status of London being valid because it’s codified in the Magna Carta has been mentioned in court cases and government reviews over the centuries.

And you can hardly suggest that giving London a specific kind of autonomy is a “universally good idea” like outlawing murder or making sure someone is empowered to make treaties on behalf of the state.

By the way, you mention murder—that’s actually the standard example (at least for undergraduate intro courses) of common law still being in force. Parliament has never passed an Act outlawing murder, but the UK can prosecute English people for murder, pass laws or rules affecting its sentencing, negotiate with foreign powers to extradite murderers, etc., because murder is a crime under common law. That’s very different from civil law states. —157.131.152.164 (talk) 21:19, 12 February 2018 (UTC)

Be interesting (FSVO “interesting”, obv.) to know which – if any – bits of it apply in Scotland. There have been odd examples of moonhowling McLoonspuds shouting “Magna Carta” at the polis when the latter come to arrest them, but the Act of Union post-dates Magna Carta by as near as makes no odds five hundred years. Mr Larrington (talk) 23:02, 6 September 2022 (UTC)