Legal/Constitutional

Governments and the illiberal cherish Magna Carta not despite its lack of legal significance, but because of it.
— David Allen Green, Foreign Policy, June 15, 2015

Monday, June 15, 2015, is the 800th anniversary of Magna Carta. In his book, Magna Carta, J.C. Holt, professor of medieval history, University of Cambridge, notes that three of the chapters of this ancient document still stand on the English Stature Book and that so much of what survives of the Great Charter is “concerned with individual liberty,” which “is a reflexion of the quality of the original act of 1215.”

Is there a chargeable offense in Western jurisprudence, some level of murder, depraved indifference, or, perhaps, reckless disregard of human life (See NY law) that can be ascribed to so-called public servants who inflict undue harm, even death, due to their decision making?  Much power and control is in their hands, much potential for abuse, and too much self-serving behavior.

Give me the liberty to know, to utter, and to argue freely according to conscience, above all liberties.
–John Milton, Areopagitica, 1644

Georgia made religious snake handling a felony in 1941, with sentencing guidelines being twenty years for promoting handling and the death penalty for the accomplices of any snake that took someone’s life with a venomous bite.

At the Green Party of England and Wales’ recent spring conference in Liverpool an item titled “Constitutional Reform” appeared about half way down the policy agenda. It had been proposed by a small group of Green Party members hailing mostly from the East Midlands. Its position on the agenda had been determined by a “prioritisation ballot” — a good device used by the Party whereby any Party member can vote for the order in which they think agenda items should be discussed.

The gods destroy those they call promising.  In this case, there may well be a firming agenda from various circles of praise that seem to be haloing the new, hip shooting Arkansas Senator.  Much of this admiration stems from the simplicity of it all – Tom Cotton, for one, doesn’t want the implications of international diplomacy to be too troubling for US interests.  For that reason, he has left his diplomacy text books at home.  Embrace the inner brute, and feel more comfortable with things.

Practically every school student knows about the Magna Carta. In contrast, few are acquainted with the Charter of the Forests – the Carta de Foresta.  (Only two copies of this second charter survive, one of them at Lincoln Cathedral and the other at Durham Cathedral.) While Magna Carta spoke mainly of the rights of the barons, the Forest Charter addressed the rights of ordinary people.

Dennis Ross, writing in the New York Times, criticises Mahmoud Abbas for using international institutions to put pressure on Israel.
Abbas, after failing to obtain a UN Security Council resolution requiring Israel to end its decades-long occupation of the West Bank, East Jerusalem and Gaza, had announced his intention to join Palestine to the International Criminal Court and seek justice via that route.

Do the police serve the city or are they a law unto themselves? This is an issue of concern throughout the country but it has come into crisp focus in New York.