| The author, A.E.Dick Howard, a well-known scholar on Magna Carta has managed to pack in a few pages a highly readable synopsis of all provisions of the Great Charter that King John granted to the barons, sword in hand, in June 1215. This Charter has great importance in its foreshadowing American constitutional provisions on such fundamental rights as freedom of our religious institutions from governmental interference, right of the people to petition the government for redress of grievances, right of temporary insurrection to restore the Constitution in case of tyranny (chapter 61 of the Charter, Second Amendment to the US Constitution), due process of law, speedy trial by jury, fair trials, proportionate punishment (ban on cruel and unusual punishments). Summarizing: this short work is an excellent, highly readable authoritative introduction to the Great Charter. |
