"We live in troubled and troubling times. Every region of the world has its vicissitudes. Whether it’s economic turmoil in Europe exacerbated by the stresses caused by the Greek position, political tension in the east fuelled by Russian annexation of Crimea and aggression towards Ukraine, tension across the Middle East as a result of the failure to resolve the Palestinian issue, the rise of ISIL’s sweep across many of the most challenged countries of that region or Boko...
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"We live in troubled and troubling times. Every region of the world has its vicissitudes. Whether it’s economic turmoil in Europe exacerbated by the stresses caused by the Greek position, political tension in the east fuelled by Russian annexation of Crimea and aggression towards Ukraine, tension across the Middle East as a result of the failure to resolve the Palestinian issue, the rise of ISIL’s sweep across many of the most challenged countries of that region or Boko Haram’s hold in Northern Nigeria, the challenges presented in a globalised world in which violence against women, bribery, corruption, money laundering, people trafficking and drug cartels are rife all wrestle with environmentally difficult consequences of an increasingly industrialised world.
At root of all is a cry for justice, fairness, freedom, a fair balance between the governed and the powers exercised by those who govern: a thirst for the rule of law where every citizen has a right to be heard and the right to fair and honest arbitration of their justiciable claims. The problems of 1215 find their echo 800 years later in our world.
So, it’s not surprising that Magna Carta, fashioned in order to constrain the unfettered pernicious power of an over rampant King, still resonates across the centuries. In Clause 39, it said “no free man, shall be seized or imprisoned or stripped of his rights or possessions or outlawed or exiled or deprived of his standing in any other way, nor will we proceed with force against him or send others to do so, except by the lawful judgement of his equals or by the law of the land” and in Clause 40 “To no one will we sell, no one deny or delay right or justice”. Important in 1215, important today."
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