Why the Magna Carta matters today

Celebrating the anniversary of the Magna Carta connects all of us who believe in liberty today to those from the past who first asserted the rights of the individual.

British noblemen forced King John to sign the Magna Carta 800 years ago today. “The Great Charter” asserted that citizens had rights independent of the wishes of the crown. Further, the charter required the king to abide by certain laws.

Among the rights included were the right to justice, to a fair trial and to habeas corpus (the government cannot arrest you without cause or in secret).

The most important core principle of the Magna Carta is the assertion that citizens have rights unto themselves. These rights are natural, or God given. They are not bestowed by the benevolence of government.

Inherent in this core principle is the idea that the people are sovereign, not the government. The American republic was founded on that very idea – it is a government of the people, by the people, for the people. For most western democracies, it is the government that is sovereign. Therein lies the difference.

This matters today because President Barack Obama and his progressive allies are trying to change this principle of individual sovereignty. They want sovereignty to shift from the individual to the government. After all, only the government can be a neutral arbiter of fairness and justice to better allocate the opportunities and resources of the collective society.

Individual sovereignty creates inequality and it must stop.

This is their argument. To those who are disaffected and struggling in this progressive economy, it is seductive.

We work every day at the Illinois Policy Institute to make the argument that the founding principles, with individual sovereignty at their core, along with free enterprise, are the greatest force for good to achieve human flourishing. This is true for all, but it is particularly true for the poor and disadvantaged.

Celebrating the anniversary of the Magna Carta connects all of us who believe in liberty today to those from the past who first asserted the rights of the individual.

Happy birthday to individual liberty – 800 years old.