Document Type
Article
Publication Date
2021
Publication
Green Bag 2d
Volume
24
Abbreviation
Green Bag 2d
First Page
149
Abstract
Debates concerning the proper method for reading legal texts did not begin in the modern era. In fact, they have been going on in our legal tradition for hundreds of years. One of the oldest, and most consequential, debates concerns the meaning of Magna Carta, the “big charter,” reluctantly granted by King John in 1215 in response to the demands of his rebellious barons. Many of its provisions, called chapters, resolved disputes that quickly became dated – very dated.
Although Magna Carta has by now receded too far into the past for us to be confident of its exact meaning, it can hardly be doubted that an originalist reading would establish (or re-establish) it as a thoroughly medieval document. But the American Revolutionaries did not read it that way. By the eighteenth century Magna Carta had acquired a meaning based on its text as read by Coke and his followers, not on its historical context.