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Magna Carta: Myth and Meaning

Where does Magna Carta stand today? In a time of the threat to rights from terror laws and state surveillance of our online activities, do we need to reaffirm its basic principles?

June 2015 will see the 800th anniversary of Magna Carta, the ‘Great Charter’ which was signed at Runnymede by King John to resolve a political crisis he faced with his barons. Buried within its 69 clauses is one of immeasurable importance. This is the idea that no one should be deprived of their freedom without just cause, and that people are entitled to fair trial by their peers according to the law of the land.

At the time Magna Carta did nothing to improve the lot of the vast majority of English people, and all but three of its provisions have been repealed. Yet Magna Carta has come to be seen as the cornerstone of English liberty and an international rallying cry against the arbitrary use of power. It was invoked by opponents of Charles I’s overbearing rule in the 17th century and embodied in the 1791 Bill of Rights in America, where it is still held to have special constitutional status.

Where does Magna Carta stand today? In a time of secret courts in Britain and the Guantanamo gulag, the threat to rights from terror laws and state surveillance of our online activities, do we need to reaffirm its basic principles? Should we take things even further, as Tim Berners-Lee has suggested, and create a new Magna Carta for the worldwide web to protect our liberty online?


Speakers

Chair

Henry Porter

Writer and journalist


Writer and journalist specialising in liberty and civil rights. He is an award-winning thriller writer and the London editor of Vanity Fair. He has written six novels and a children’s book. His thriller about the Fall of the Berlin Wall, Brandenburg, was awarded the Ian Fleming Steel Dagger for the Best Thriller and his most recent book, The Dying Light, was runner up for the same prize. As a columnist for the Observer, he was challenged by Tony Blair to an email debate on Labour’s record on civil liberties. He subsequently co-founded of the Convention on Modern Liberty.
Featuring

Dinah Rose

Barrister


Dinah Rose QC is a barrister specialising in civil liberties and public law. She represented Julian Assange in the Supreme Court, and Binyam Mohamed, a British resident detained in Guantanamo Bay. She is currently acting for The Guardian, seeking disclosure of letters written by Prince Charles to Government Ministers.

David Starkey

Historian and author


One of Britain’s leading constitutional historians, known for his combative debating style on Radio 4’s The Moral Maze and BBC2’s Question Time. He has written numerous bestselling books and presented popular television series on subjects including Henry VIII, Elizabeth l, the monarchy, and the Churchills.

Rory Stewart

Former Conservative government minister, whose new book is Politics On the Edge: A Memoir from Within


Former UK Cabinet as Secretary of State for International Development, and before that Prisons Minister, Minister for Africa, Minister for Development, Environment Minister and Chair of the Defence Committee. He ran against Boris Johnson for the leadership of the Conservative Party in 2019. Earlier in his career he was briefly in the British Army, before serving as a diplomat in Indonesia, the Balkans and Iraq, establishing and running a charity in Afghanistan, and holding a chair at Harvard University. His 21-month 6,000-mile walk across Asia, including Afghanistan, is recorded in his New York Times bestseller, The Places in Between. His other books include Occupational Hazards, and The Marches. His new book is Politics On the Edge: A Memoir from Within. Stewart is now the president of the non-profit organisation GiveDirectly, a visiting fellow at Yale's Jackson School and the co-host with Alastair Campbell of the UK's leading podcast The Rest Is Politics.