ABSTRACT
The Magna Carta is perhaps the best-known and earliest guarantee of the rights of English people. Although its authors were clearly responding to issues specific to their time, the document's main provisions proved to have lasting meaning far beyond what the authors could possibly have imagined. The Magna Carta serves as a cornerstone of civil liberties not only in England but also in America. The most enduring clauses of the Magna Carta concerned the principles governing the justice system. The Magna Carta also introduced the concept of just compensation for goods or lands appropriated by the government, a principle that survives in the Takings Clause of the Fifth Amendment to the US Constitution. The Magna Carta also included a lengthy provision intended to ensure that John and his successors adhered to the charter's provisions. Historians and legal scholars have long debated the Magna Carta's significance.
