The foundational document of law throughout the Anglosphere, the Magna Carta was an agreement between King John of England and his barons that guaranteed certain rights and duties for both sides. Notable provisions included the protection of church rights, protection for the barons from illegal imprisonment, access to swift and impartial justice, and limitations on feudal payments to the Crown. Neither side kept their part of the bargain, and the agreement was nullified by Pope Innocent III later that year.
However, it was reissued in modified form by John’s successors – the regents of his son Henry III – and by other later monarchs. However, as the Parliament of England made laws, parts of it became inapplicable, and the last remnants of were removed from statute in the 19th and 20th centuries. None of the original 1215 Magna Carta is currently in force, but three clauses of the original charter are enshrined in the 1297 reissued Magna Carta and do still remain in force in England and Wales.
The Magna Carta has never been about the rights of anyone who wasn’t a royal or a noble, and anyone who tells you otherwise is an idiot.
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