In the year that our politicians publicly celebrate the 800th anniversary of Magna Carta, they ought to remember that not only did it establish the concept that the monarch was subject to the law, it also had something to say about access to justice.

Thus clauses seventeen an eighteen of the 1215 (original) charter provided:

17.  That common pleas were not to follow the king’s court about the country  but were to be held in some specified place,

18. That the king would send two justices through each county four times a year to take civil cases of novel disseisin, mort d’ancestor ( inheritance of land) and darrein presentment.

The problem being addressed by these clauses of the charter was the difficulty that litigants were experiencing in finding the royal courts to get their cases heard. Of course, these clauses are no longer law, and the specific nature of the problems of access today are very different to those in 1215. But the general problem, namely that  of gaining access to the courts, remains the same.

It has long been accepted that it is not the letter  but the spirit of the charter that has inspired past  generations. Perhaps the powers that be would do well to remember the promise of The Charter, and that  politicians who have contravened the spirit of this iconic document have come to regret doing so. The charter has been described by Igor Judge, a much respected former Lord Chief Justice, as being a ‘living’ document. Yet if its promise is to be realised in the present generation, and it is not to become just a piece of ancient history, then it is necessary that its spirit should continue to be honoured.

Nigel Burn, Partner, Wilkin Chapman, Lincoln

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