Magna Carta 800 years on: faded lustre and family law

'I am here because these proposals appal me because of what they will do for access to justice for those who are most vulnerable and about the quality of justice which our system provides.' (Dinah Rose QC 4 June 2013 the Demonstration to Save Justice outside the Ministry of Justice.)

The stage in June 1215 could not have been more different to that in June 2013. From the water meadow at Runnymede to the concrete of the Ministry of Justice. From feudal barons and an embattled King John to silks cloaked with megaphones and indignation. Listen carefully enough however and the rhetoric is remarkably similar.

A Carta of Fundamental Principles

The vigour of many of Magna Carta’s 63 clauses has been lost to the passage of time: gone is the requirement that 'heirs … may not [be given in marriage] to someone of lower social standing.' No more do we hear of 'wapentakes' and 'trithings'!
...

Read the full article here.