Skip to Content

The Human Rights Act: a Magna Carta for the twenty-first century?

(May 2014, Mark Rathbone, Canford School)

Magna Carta was sealed at Runnymede in June 1215 by King John; the Human Rights Act owes its origins to the European Convention on Human Rights, signed in Rome in November 1950 by ministers from fifteen countries, including Britain. This article compares the two documents and considers whether the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) and the Human Rights Act (HRA) can be seen as a modern equivalent to Magna Carta.

Click Rathbone Essay Human Rights Act and Magna Carta to download the full essay.

 

Featured Article

Lord Phillips

Lord Phillips

Master of the Rolls (2000-2005)

The early settlers in the United States took with them copies of the Magna Carta. One undertaking given by King John in that Charter was as follows: No freeman shall be arrested or imprisoned or disseised or outlawed or exiled or in...

Read on...

Recent Articles

See more...

Stay updated

If you would like to keep informed about the work of the Magna Carta Trust and our partners, please sign up to the newsletter below.