h*h
发帖数: 27852 | 1 【 以下文字转载自 Military 讨论区 】
发信人: dodgers (Dodgers), 信区: Military
标 题: 人类史最重要交易Magna Carta下个月就800年了
发信站: BBS 未名空间站 (Sat May 30 15:35:04 2015, 美东)
http://www.wsj.com/articles/magna-carta-eight-centuries-of-libe
Magna Carta是人类历史上最重要的宪法文件，是所有现代社会文明的基础文件。没有
Magna Carta, 英国不会成为大英帝国，也不会有美国，也不会有中国现在的各种物质
文明。
Magna Carta要求英国国王也必须遵守法则，確立國王必須諮詢貴族才能徵稅，所有未
来的报纸，私人权利，财产被保护，法律面前人人平等，due process, 规律选举，合
同法，jury trial，都以Magna Carta的文本为基础。
当年签Magna Carta的英国国王King John被迫在贵族威胁下签了，牺牲了自己，造福了
全人类，包括现代中国人。
As Lord Denning, the most celebrated modern British jurist put it, Magna
Carta was “the greatest constitutional document of all time, the foundation
of the freedom of the individual against the arbitrary authority of the
despot.”
It was at Runnymede, on June 15, 1215, that the idea of the law standing
above the government first took contractual form. King John accepted that he
would no longer get to make the rules up as he went along. From that
acceptance flowed, ultimately, all the rights and freedoms that we now take
for granted: uncensored newspapers, security of property, equality before
the law, habeas corpus, regular elections, sanctity of contract, jury trials
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