24
The writ called ‘praecipe’ is not to be issued to anyone in respect to any free tenement in such a way that a free man might lose his court.
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A Writ of Praecipe is an order from a court which instructs someone to perform an action. Pay your taxes. Fix that fence. Control your livestock. Pay your workers. These are all orders which might be instructed of someone to perform by a Writ of Praecipe.
The issue in Clause 24 is that the earls and barons did not wish to be directed to do anything by anyone. Furthermore, as they owned the courts within their own hundreds and counties, they certainly did not wish to be directed to do anything by a higher court; especially not the King's court.
The truth was that for a while, England had a peculiar system of law which although derived from Danelaw was unique to the sceptered isle. The Common Law, which prescribed the rule of precedent, said that what had previously been declared in a higher court, had application in a lower court. With a feudal system imposed, English courts which were run by the earls and barons, absolutely did not want Common Law imposed from without; especially Common Law being imposed from Norman and French Courts.
25
There is to be a single measure for wine throughout our realm, and a single measure for ale, and a single measure for Corn, that is to say the London quarter, and a single breadth for dyed cloth, russets, and haberjects, that is to say two yards within the lists. And it shall be the same for weights as for measures.
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...but nobody to know what it is?
I get the need for standardisation of weights and measures but to then neglect to state what kinds of weights and measures are to be used throughout the realm, is just plain daft.
It is one thing to suggest that there ought to be a law but quite another to merely stop there and neglect to define the terms of what that law is. This is a lovely sentiment but awful in execution.
26
Henceforth there is to be nothing given for a writ of inquest from the person seeking an inquest of life or member, but such a writ is to be given freely and is not to be denied.
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In doing the research to find out what kind of conditions existed before Magna Carta, I was shocked to learn that in order for someone to apply for an inquest into why someone had died, which the only reason that you would want to conduct such a thing is because of the negligence of someone else, then the person requesting the inquest would have to pay a surety to the court in question. Naturally this was open to rampant corruption and a direct conflict of interest if the person who had been killed had been killed upon the order or the earl or baron who owned the court.
This demand that there is to be nothing given for a writ of inquest, works fine for someone making an application to the King's Courts but in practice would not be applied to the local courts operated by the earls and barons. Clause 26 is an upwards demand which in practice, would have no application to the burghers, peasants, or serfs. Nothing would be given by the people who wanted to seek an inquest but at the same token, a court owned and operated by a baron or earl might demand it of someone else.
With respect to a Coronial Inquest today, these kinds of proceedings only really happen in suspicious circumstances, or in relation to a crime against the person which has resulted in loss of life; and as a result where Manslaughter or Murder charges might be laid. Death by misadventure or accident cases, will also pass through Coroners' Courts.
27
If any persons hold from us at fee farm or in socage or burgage, and hold land from another by knight service, we are not, by virtue of such a fee farm or socage or burgage, to have custody of the heir or their land which pertains to another’s fee, nor are we to have custody of such a fee farm or socage or burgage unless this fee farm owes knight service. We are not to have the custody of an heir or of any land which is held from another by knight service on the pretext of some small serjeanty held from us by service of rendering us knives or arrows or suchlike things.
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'Socage' is a nice ye olde worlde word for 'rent' but not that kind of rent which demands military service from an underling. Clause 27 basically stipulates that if someone is renting from someone else, then the lessor can not come at the lessee for fees and rents which relate to some other lessor's land. The mere existence of the fact that there even needs to be this kind of clause is quite frankly astonishing to a modern audience. We take it for granted that a landlord can only extract rents from someone which relates to the land/house/building/apartment being rented but apparently the earls and the barons of the thirteenth century had no such qualms about extracting rent relating to land that they did not own.
Clause 27 also gives us a window into the equally absurd practice of holding someone else's heirs or wards in custody, upon invention of some minor military service; hence the inclusion of the items of knives and arrows.
28
No bailiff is henceforth to put any man on his open law or on oath simply by virtue of his spoken word, without reliable witnesses being produced for the same.
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In other words, the owners of a court can not simply charge someone with an offence because the earls and barons feel like it. This clause exists in a time way before the invention of any kind of modern police force, or the use of warrants or writs to direct bailiffs and sheriffs to search premises and/or seize property.
We have finally found something which has relevance today. Here's the thing though: I live in New South Wales; where the Search Warrants Act 1985 and the Law Enforcement (Powers and Responsibilities) Act 2002, define the types of warrants, and the powers of the police and courts, to issue, enforce, and execute them. Clause 28 by virtue of having been superseded by statute on multiple occasions at this point, has zero effect. Statute Law prevails.
29
No free man is to be taken or imprisoned or disseised of his free tenement or of his liberties or free customs, or outlawed or exiled or in any way ruined, nor will we go against such a man or send against him save by lawful judgment of his peers or by the law of the land. To no-one will we sell or deny or delay right or justice.
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The Cookers and Wingnuts will read Clause 29 and think that just because this says that the barons and the earls will not go against someone "save by lawful judgment of his peers" then they do not have to submit to the courts; despite and in spite of the fact that the next immediate words in the same sentence read "or by the law of the land".
Again, I live in New South Wales; so the Jury Act 1977 is the principal act which defines when a jury is to be used in a court case. The Jury Act is a statute in the law of the land. This does not in any way mean that if you are driving while disqualified, or have stolen from a shop, or slugged someone with your fists, or have caused a nuisance or a public disturbance or have engaged in civil disorder, that you are entitled to a jury.
The only part which has any operation today, and it has take us 29 clauses to get here is that:
To no-one will we sell or deny or delay right or justice.
Finally we have a winner. Courts are restricted and in fact do not sell justice.
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At this point we finally add 1 to the tally; though not in the way that the people who assert that they have magical Magna Carta rights think that they do.
Today's running tally of Clauses in Magna Carta which might apply to someone in court in Australia today is:
1/29.
ONE!
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