We The People Legal Primer - Prison Book Program

First Edition Condensed May 2004
main public square). The Twelve Tables of Rome allowed the 52. Si quis fuerit disseisitus vel elongatus per nos sine legali Some parts of the petition also found their way into the
people to learn and understand the law, and generations of judicio parium suorum de terris, castellis, libertatibus, vel jure American Declaration of Independence and the Constitution of
schoolchildren memorized them.
suo, statim ea ei restituemus; ...
the United States.
The Twelve Tables codified and promoted the method of 52. If anyone whom has been disseized or deprived by us The English Bill of Rights, 1689. The English Bill of Rights
public prosecution of crimes and instituted a system for injured without lawful judgment of his peers of lands, castles, blazed the legal trail for the American Bill of Rights, and
parties to seek just compensation in civil disputes. The Twelve liberties, or his rights, we will restore them to him at once; defined important limits on the monarchy’s legal powers, such
Tables protected the plebeians from the legal abuses of the Actually, the Magna Carta failed in its original enactment of as the arbitrary suspension of Parliament’s laws. More
ruling patricians. No longer would the memories and
1215. Intended as an instrument of peace, it instead provoked importantly, it allowed only Parliament (and not the monarchy)
interpretations of judges (composed only of patricians) act as hostilities. Meant to confirm customary law, it instead
the power to raise money through taxation.
the sole foundation of justice. The desire and creation of the promoted disagreement and contention. The parties held it Blackstone’s Commentaries on the Laws of England,
Twelve Tables established the important basic principle of a legally valid for only the first three months, but did not execute 1765. The British jurist and legal scholar William Blackstone
written legal code for Roman law. Perhaps most importantly, it properly during that period. After ten weeks, the Pope (1723-1780), focused on studying and teaching law. Legal
the Twelve Tables formed an important basis of all subsequent annulled the Magna Carta. Yet the people forced its revival in historians also know him as the first British law professor to
western civil and criminal law.
re-issues in 1216, 1217, and 1225. The last version became turn from teaching Roman law to teaching English law. He
The Twelve Tables and their subject matter:
law, confirmed and interpreted in Parliament and enforced in wrote down the entire English law in an orderly four-volume
I – Preliminaries to a trial, rules for a trial; II – The trial; the courts of law. Twelve chapters from the original issue still set, in clear English, thus making English law suddenly
III – Debt; IV – Rights of fathers over the family;
stand as law, including clause 39, above, on Due Process. accessible to the public. His thoroughness also made his
V – Inheritance and Guardianship;
The healthy survival of the clauses on individual liberties commentaries essential reference material for both lawyers
VI – Acquisition, Ownership, and Possession;
reflects the superb quality of the intentions in the original act of and law students.
VII – Rights concerning land and real estate;
1215.
Blackstone’s book exerted tremendous influence on the legal
VIII – Torts or Delicts; IX – Public law; X – Sacred law; Lawyers caused much of the survival of the clauses on profession and on the teaching of law in England and in the
XI – Marriage laws; XII – Binding public powers.
liberties as well as the veneration for the Magna Carta itself. In United States, and many legal scholars believe that the law in
The Gauls destroyed the Twelve Tables when they sacked the 1600s, Sir Edward Coke led to re-instate it as a document the American colonies during the first century of American
Rome in 390 AD, about 800 years after their creation. Several of political importance. Sir William Blackstone wrote a
independence consisted mostly of Blackstone’s
documents have survived which refer to parts of the different commentary on it in 1759, and William Sharp McKechnie Commentaries.
Twelve Tables; thus, some information exists as to their wrote his commentary on it in 1905. The American Bar The American Declaration of Independence, 1776. On 4
contents.
Association provided the memorial that stands at Runnymede. July 1776, representatives for the people of the American
Justinian’s Code, or Corpus Juris Civilis, 529 AD. Modern British and American lawyers hold annual gatherings of the colonies signed the Declaration of Independence, thus
legal scholars remember Justinian, a Roman, mostly for his Magna Carta Society.
proclaiming that “all political connection between [the United
codification of Roman Law in a series of books called Corpus In 1996, almost 800 years after the creation of the Magna Colonies] and the State (Nation) of Great Britain is and ought
Juris Civilis. His collection served as an important basis for law Carta, Britain’s Lord Chief Justice, Lord Bingham wrote, to be dissolved” and that the colonists had created a new
in contemporary society, and was inspired by logic-based “Historically, the constitutional significance of Magna Carta has nation, the United States of America.
Greek legal principles. Justinian’s Code resulted in many legal depended much less on what the charter said, than on what it The American declaration represents the first instance ever of
maxims still in use today. His work inspired the modern was thought to have said. What it was thought to have said a government (the United States) rebuking the medieval
concept and, indeed, the creation of the English word “justice” was the subject of constant development, with the aid of some theory that certain people (the nobility) possessed, by right, the
as a legal term. Important concepts in his Roman Code statutory reinforcement, over succeeding centuries. It was this power to rule others. The Declaration makes the assertion that
survive in the laws of Italy, Germany, Scotland, South Africa process which led to the English Bill of Rights, the heavy “All men are created equal,” and that they have “unalienable
and Quebec. Roman law formed the base of civil law, one of reliance placed on Magna Carta by the American colonies in rights that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of
the two main legal systems to govern the modern societies of their battles against the crown, the constitution of the United happiness. That to secure these rights, governments are
the western civilization.
States and, the constitution of the Republic of India.”
instituted among men, deriving their powers from the consent
Magna Carta, 1215 AD. A basic document that states the Mayflower Compact, 1620. A quickly-drafted civil document of the governed.” Regarding the supreme power of the
liberties guaranteed to the English people. Some legal meant to secure an agreement among the colonists aboard people, the Declaration states, “...Governments are instituted
scholars call it the “blueprint of English common law.” The the Mayflower after realizing their original “patent” had no among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the
Magna Carta proclaims rights that have become a part of jurisdiction where they landed. The compact exemplifies selfrule
by the people.
destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter
governed. That whenever any Form of Government becomes
English law and, now, as the foundation of the constitution of
every English-speaking nation. The Magna Carta attempted to John Carver, a leader of the Separatist Puritans (an unpopular or abolish it...”
codify the relationships between the three great powers in the self-ruling religious order, later known as the “Pilgrims”), Articles of Confederation, 1781. The compact between the
land at that time: the King and his state apparatus, the Church chartered the Mayflower to help them to colonize the new thirteen original states of the Union in force from 1781 to 1789.
ultimately led by the Pope, and the Barons (the leading nobles) world. London businessmen, who helped finance the voyage, It began the development of an American federal government.
with their castles and great estates. Such power problems insisted that it include other, non-Separatist colonists. The It and the Constitution contained many of the same or similar
included: could the Church excommunicate nobles, and could Virginia Company of London issued a patent granting land in principles and provisions. The people eventually established
the Crown prosecute the clergy. English barons and
Virginia to the colonists. The Mayflower Compact would have the Constitution because it “formed a more perfect Union.”
churchmen drew up the Magna Carta, which means “great never come into existence had the ship arrived in Virginia;
charter” in Latin, and forced the tyrannical King John to set his
The Constitution of the United States of America, 1787. In
however, the Mayflower reached Cape Cod instead. Rumors
seal to it (meaning: to sign it).
1787 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, representatives of the
spread among the Pilgrims that some of the others intended to people of the original thirteen American colonies signed the
Because of King John’s cruelty and greed, the powerful feudal do as they pleased because the patent did not apply to that American Constitution thus forming the basis of the first
nobles, and the churchmen, and (to some extent) the
part of the new world.
republican government in the world. The Constitution defined
commoners united against him. John had begun to treat the The Pilgrims modeled the compact after their church covenant, the institutions of government and the powers and duties of the
nobility as he did commoners – by jailing them without showing which vested religious authority in the people. While anchored legislative, executive and judicial branches. The Constitution
reason. The barons found this treatment of them intolerable, off the tip of Cape Cod, most (41) of the adult male
also declared itself as the supreme law in the United States,
and John’s behavior toward them triggered the writing of the passengers signed the compact, binding them to a “civil Body and that it overrides all other laws inconsistent with it.
Magna Carta.
Politic” (a temporary government) in order to “enact … just and From the European viewpoint, the Constitution seemed to
While King John waged a disastrous war in France, the barons equal Laws … for the general Good of the Colony.” They have serious weaknesses. The American Bill of Rights
met secretly and swore to compel him to respect the rights of intended that the compact help their colony to survive by seemed to weaken it further.
all his subjects. When John returned to England, the barons preserving order through a rule of law developed by the
presented him with a series of demands in the form of the colonists themselves until a valid company patent or royal Instead of setting up the strongest possible government, the
Magna Carta. John tried to gather support, but almost all of charter could confirm their right to self-government.
American revolutionists set up the weakest possible central
his followers deserted him. On 15 June 1215, John met with
government with most of the power remaining with the people
The colonists then elected John Carver as their first governor.
the barons and the bishops along the south bank of the River
and the state constitutions acting as buffers. The writers of the
A month later, after scouting for a suitable settlement area, the
Thames in a meadow called Runnymede and affixed his seal
Constitution believed that the ultimate power of a nation
colonists landed and settled at a place they named Plymouth.
to the Magna Carta. After John signed the Magna Carta, he
resided in its people, instead of its rulers.
The colonists successfully abided by their compact for more
sent letters to all sheriffs ordering them to read the Magna than 70 years until they joined the Massachusetts Bay Colony Europeans saw the Constitution as a violation of age-old
Carta aloud in public.
in 1691.
experience and wisdom. Some governments refused to
The Magna Carta caused the first instance in history where a
recognize the government of the Unites States. However,
Petition of Right, 1628. A petition to King Charles I from
king allowed that even he must observe the law and that the
some Europeans dissented with the general Old World view of
Parliament championed by Sir Edward Coke, a member of
barons could “distrain and distress him in every possible way”
the new republic. The English statesman William Pitt read the
Parliament and a well-known adversary to the crown. The
– just short of a right to rebellion.
Constitution and proclaimed it an object of wonder and
petition demanded of Charles: that he desist from levying admiration for all future generations. Count Aranda, Prime
In its effect on American law, the Magna Carta codified, and taxes on the people without Parliament’s consent, that he Minister of Spain, said that the United States was born a
thereby preserved, the customary laws of “habeas corpus” and cease housing soldiers and sailors in the homes of private pygmy, but that a day would come when it would be a giant,
“due process”(shown here in the original Latin of the Magna citizens, that he desist from proclaiming martial law in time of even a colossus.
Carta and translated into English):
peace, and that he desist from imprisoning any of his subjects
39. Nullus liber homo capiatur, vel imprisonetur, aut
without cause shown.
The American Constitution continues to serve as a model for
the constitutions of many nations upon attaining independence
disseisiaqtur, aut ulagetur, aut aliquo modo destruatur, nec Parliament wrote the petition partly in reaction to Charles’ or becoming democracies.
super eum ibimus, nec eum mittemus, nisi per legale
attempt to finance several costly foreign wars by extracting the
judicium parium suorum vel per legem terre. ...
money directly from his subjects after Parliament had failed to The American Bill of Rights, 1791. Four years after the
39. No free man shall be seized, or imprisoned, or disseized provide funding. Charles had arbitrarily imprisoned those signing of the Constitution, American statesmen amended
(stripped of rights or possessions), or outlawed or exiled, or in subjects who refused to pay. Charles signed the petition in their supreme law by declaring the rights of free speech,
any way ruined, nor will we (the barons) go or send against exchange for parliamentary approval of funds needed to freedom of the press and of religion, a right to trial by one’s
him, except by the lawful judgment of his peers or by the law maintain his foreign policies.
peers (jury), protection against “cruel and unusual punishment”
or unreasonable searches or seizures, and other rights.
of the land.
Although the petition did little to change Charles’ autocratic
rule, it later became an integral part of the English Constitution.
A free primer. For imprisoned people only, – page 6 – who can reproduce it without permission.