ABSTRACT
The 2015 events proceeded on the basis of Lord Denning's oft-quoted claim that the Magna Carta is "the greatest constitutional document of all times the foundation of the freedom of the individual against the arbitrary authority of the despot". The Magna Carta is the ideal avatar for the Conservatives' proposals as it is the nearest thing to an "irrepealable 'fundamental statute' that England has ever had". Chris Grayling, when Lord Chancellor/Justice Secretary, took the opportunity of the Global Law Summit staged to mark the 800th anniversary to enthuse that the "Magna Carta has been one of the UK's greatest exports". As David Cameron declared on the Magna Carta's anniversary the concept of government under the law, taken for granted here in Britain is what others are crying out for, hoping for, praying for. Magna Carta rhetoric is a device used by the Conservatives to critique the HRA as being too foreign to the UK's legal traditions.
