The Magna Charta: Reality and myth of the medieval constitutionalism

Authors

  • Miguel Satrústegui Gil-Delgado Universidad Complutense de Madrid

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.17811/hc.v0i10.232

Keywords:

Magna Charta. John Lackland. English Constitutionalism. American Constitutionalism. Judicial guarantees. Mediaeval Law. “Fuero” of Aragón.

Abstract

This article describes: the origins of Magna Charta in the crossroad of conflicts of the reign of John Lackland; its variegated content of rights and obligations of a feudal nature (including the judicial guarantees of its famous Chapter XXXIX) and the trajectory of Magna Charta in the English and also in the American constitutionalism. Finally, it analyses Magna Charta in the legal, political and cultural context of the Middle Ages, as a typical product thereof; it revues other laws and legal institutions of a comparable kind (specially in Aragon) and it concludes underlining the importance of the constitutionalist movement in the XVII century that granted Magna Charta with a meaning that exceeds its historical origins.

Submission date: 14/12/2008

Acceptance date: 21/02/2009

Author Biography

Miguel Satrústegui Gil-Delgado, Universidad Complutense de Madrid

Profesor Titular de Derecho Constitucional de la Universidad Complutense de Madrid, con publicaciones referidas a las elecciones, los partidos políticos, los cambios de gobierno y los medios de comunicación. Es coautor de un manual de Derecho Constitucional (Tirant Lo Blanch, 2007, 7ª ed). Así mismo, es abogado. Anteriormente ha desempeñado cargos directivos en la Administración del Estado (Ministerio de Cultura) y también en la asesoría jurídica, en el sector de los medios de comunicación (Secretario General del Grupo Prisa).

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Issue

No. 10 (2009): Historia Constitucional N. 10 (2009)

Section

United Kingdom and United States of America

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