Civics In A Year
What do you really know about American government, the Constitution, and your rights as a citizen?
Civics in a Year is a fast-paced podcast series that delivers essential civic knowledge in just 10 minutes per episode. Over the course of a year, we’ll explore 250 key questions—from the founding documents and branches of government to civil liberties, elections, and public participation.
Rooted in the Civic Literacy Curriculum from the Center for American Civics at Arizona State University, this series is a collaborative project supported by the School of Civic and Economic Thought and Leadership. Each episode is designed to spark curiosity, strengthen constitutional understanding, and encourage active citizenship.
Whether you're a student, educator, or lifelong learner, Civics in a Year will guide you through the building blocks of American democracy—one question at a time.
Civics In A Year
The Common Law Revolution That Shaped Modern Democracy
The Magna Carta established the revolutionary concept that even kings must operate under the rule of law, becoming a cornerstone of American democracy despite its humble origins as a political concession in 13th-century England.
• Originally just one of many royal charters when signed by King John in 1215
• Gained importance over centuries as a symbol of English constitutional liberty
• Establishes that rulers cannot wield absolute power and must recognize certain rights
• Became central to English common law tradition that everyone is both governed by and protected under the law
• American colonists brought this legal tradition to North America in the 17th century
• Key framers like Adams and Jefferson were common law lawyers deeply informed by this tradition
• American Revolution was "moderate" because it sought to preserve constitutional principles while rejecting tyranny
• Declaration of Independence references "our constitution" meaning the British common law tradition
• Magna Carta's influence continues today as a global symbol of liberty under law
• Documents like Magna Carta demonstrate America's connection to broader historical traditions of freedom
For deeper resources on William Blackstone and the common law tradition, visit the Jack Miller Center website..
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Welcome back everyone. So today we're talking about the Magna Carta, looking at documents that influenced our government, so we have Dr Kreis back to talk about this. Dr Kreis, today's question is what is the and complicated story and here's another dimension of it ago, it's from the 13th century in England.
Speaker 2:It's a royal charter from the King of England, from the year 1215 specifically. And it's rather fascinating to think here we are, over 800 years later and we care about this particular piece of parchment, this document, this royal charter. So here's why, in this Magna Carta great charter, king John of England affirms or attests that he will be restricted, he will abide by certain practices and recognize particular rights of people and institutions in his realm. So it's about the rule of law and that the king is not an absolute king, he's not an emperor, he's not a despot, he's not a tyrant. He must rule under the law. So this is his public attestation of this. He recognized particular rights of the Christian church at that time would be the Catholic church in England and the rights of several barons or lords, the aristocracy of his realm. And in effect it was a political concession, it was out of weakness, it was a statement of limitations on his royal power, because he's trying to settle a rebellion of these several barons and he's got leaders of the church, bishops and others not happy with him about particular things. So it was important at the time, but it was not extremely important. Nobody knew in 1215, when he's signing this. Oh my gosh, this is going to change world history going forward. Right, there's just another conflict between the barons and the church and the king.
Speaker 2:And there were other royal charters, right. Why has this one become the Magna Carta, the great charter? Why is it reissued by later kings? Well, over time, in the development of English political history, this question becomes crucial what is the meaning of our political kingdom? How much is it governed by law and how much is it governed by the king and this royal family? And a phrase eventually develops in English political thought and debate that we have a constitution, we have an English constitution, and the Magna Carta of 1215 becomes a crucial kind of touchstone or pillar to capture the meaning of England. We are a people and a land and a kingdom of political liberty under law. There are rights that the king must recognize under law and historians will say a kind of political mythology develops, a kind of political narrative or story develops around Magna Carta. It was never that important in the 13th century. I don't want to get into all that. Just the reality politically is it becomes important and it gets invoked, especially by common law jurists and thinkers and advocates in the 16th century and especially in the 17th century. And that's where America comes in, right, because 17th century, well, that's when American colonists are showing up on the shores of North America and they're bringing this English political culture and legal culture with them. So by the late 1600s, right, there's already American colonies.
Speaker 2:In 1688, something happens called the Glorious Revolution in England, and it's part of this contest over what our political kingdom is. How important is the rule of law, how limited is the king by law and by the institutions of the constitution of England, the parliament, the courts, the common law, etc. 1688 is this revolution, the glorious revolution. When a king who has a more absolutist view of the king's power abdicates, he runs away, king William and Queen Mary, william and Mary take the throne, recognizing the almost co-equal status of parliament and they recognize the rule of law and courts of law, et cetera. Then this ends up being a crucial moment for American political thinking over in these colonies. This is what the English Constitution means. It's a balanced constitution, it's a constitutional monarchy, or all these phrases. And again Magna Carta is playing a crucial political, legal, philosophical and rhetorical role here in saying this is what English politics, the English constitution, means. The rule of law is the dominant, dominant principle and the king is under that. King is very important, but the king is under the rule of law.
Speaker 1:So really quick, when you talk about common law, can you define that? Because I think it was brought up in either previous episodes or is going to be brought up that England doesn't have a constitution in the sense that we do. It's not written down. Can you kind of define for our listeners what common law means?
Speaker 2:Yes, you can trace it right back to the phrase predates Magna Carta in 1215, but it captures something Magna Carta does. It's this idea that the king is under the law, so the law is common to the king and the barons and the church. That's what's clear from 1215 and Magna Carta. It's not that the king is the sole source of the law and is above the law. Right, it's the common law because it covers the king and the church and the barons. Now it becomes more common over centuries when it's clear that the commoners, who are not aristocracy, they're not the royal family, they're not the bishops and priests of the church, the commoners also are not just governed under the law but protected by the law. And this is the important element in the English common law of courts of law and judges and then juries of commoners. Now, initially the juries were aristocracy, it was the jury of your peers, was fellow aristocrats, barons, lords, etc. But eventually becomes commoners on the juries, and so it really means the common law. Everyone in the realm is both subservient to, under, has to comply with and also is protected by common law. So someone who has more power or rank or prestige or wealth wealth can't just, you know, arbitrarily rule over you. So yes, this is the common law. We don't think of it as a source of the Declaration and the Constitution because it's not a philosophy that comes from a philosopher's book, you know, like John Locke or Montesquieu, or even you know Sidney or Harrington or others writing about republicanism. But the common law is a crucial source of American political thinking in the 17th century. But in the 18th century and leading up to the revolution, the leading figures at the first and second Continental Congress have studied the common law in American colleges. John Adams is a lawyer versed in the common law. Thomas Jefferson is basically a lawyer versed in the common law, and the list goes on. So Roger Sherman, who doesn't get much credit in the Committee of Five drafting the Declaration of Independence, right Great common law lawyer. And there are great books of the common law written. Sir Edward Cook is one. His name looks like Coke Coca-Cola to us, but it's pronounced Cook. Sir Edward Cook is a great jurist and he's citing the Magna Carta a lot in the 17th century.
Speaker 2:English liberty, constitutional liberty, the English Constitution, english rule of law that's Sir Edward Cook. And then, right before the American Revolution, an English jurist named Blackstone. William Blackstone writes commentaries on the laws of England and it's really a constitutional commentary on the Constitution of England. And the trick there is that there's not a written as you said, there's not a written charter document called the Constitution of England. It's the partly written, partly unwritten Constitution of England, and Magna Carta is one of those important documents. So is the English Bill of Rights from 1688, at the time of that revolution. I just talked about the Glorious Revolution.
Speaker 2:So what's the big point here? The takeaway the American framers at the First Continental Congress, the Second Continental Congress, then the 1787 Constitutional Convention. Many of those leading framers were common law lawyers. And even if they weren't, someone like George Washington has common law books on his shelves at Mount Vernon because he's a property holder. He could be serving on a jury. He's a leading figure in the community. He might be elected to the legislature. They've got to know about the common law and again, americans take particular pride in rule of law and the importance of courts, lawyers, juries, I mean.
Speaker 2:Just think today. Here we are, 800 years after Magna Carta. Think of how important lawyers are. And partly we know how important lawyers are in American political culture because we like to make jokes about them. Right, that's how powerful and prominent they are. But if you're prominent and powerful in America, well, you wouldn't get jokes, right, so like. So what's a polite? I mean, there are lots of mean, nasty lawyer jokes. But you know, ok, when you're at a bar association meeting a lawyer, a meeting of lawyers, who is the nice, polite, smiling person? There Answer the caterer. The nice, polite, smiling person there Answer the caterer. Right, I mean lawyers are mean, nasty, powerful people. Right, but lawyers like they'll take pride in those judges because they're a pillar of our civic political order and in independent judiciary. Americans invent it, we take it from the British but we really make it official, official, separate, written constitution with state constitutions with an independent judicial branch, federal constitution with independent judicial branch. All that's coming from the common law tradition.
Speaker 1:So you're saying essentially that this is a particular like English-British history that shapes America's origin. I mean, even you say we go back to 1215, which is that's a long time, but it's really important for all people anywhere who are interested in political liberty and the rule of law, correct?
Speaker 2:Yes, I mean the display of the Magna Carta at the American National Archives. There's a historian, pauline Mayer, who refers to the Declaration of Independence. She wrote a history about the Declaration of Independence just in the past few decades, but the title of that book is American Scripture and the display at the National Archives. These are like sacred documents. You know the Declaration, the Constitution, the Northwest Ordinance of 1787. But there's this English, medieval, 13th century English document. So these are crucial touchstones for the meaning of our political culture, constitutional order, culture, constitutional order. And then, when Magna Carta turned 800, a decade ago in 2015, there are celebrations, of course, in England and in America and elsewhere in the world. This is an important document around the world, not just for the English and the British, to be proud of, because it stands for this principle of liberty under law and the rule of law. So you know my grandparents. On my father's side my grandparents came from they were poor people from southern Italy, and on my mother's side they came from Ireland and from Germany. And Americans bring, and have always brought people from many countries and especially in the 20th century and 21st century, all over the globe. Right. But these, this history, matters because if you want to get to America, you want to come to a land of liberty and the rule of law and opportunity and Magna Carta, and then the common law tradition and the English constitution constitution is a crucial source of that and then once our revolution happens well, the idea starts to spread. It's from 1776 comes the age of revolutions revolution in Haiti, the French Revolution, other revolutions for liberty in Europe and elsewhere in the world.
Speaker 2:Now I do want to say a couple of things Again. The common law is a complicated historical tradition. 13th century is not the beginning of the common law. It has origins earlier than that and it develops for four centuries after that, till you get to America and the American Revolution and the dispute about what the meaning of the British Constitution is. So it's a complicated constitutional tradition and legal tradition and the common law mind is comfortable with putting together things that we academics don't think easily. Put together History and historical development with some crucial philosophical principle, like rights of individuals with some idea from Christianity, or the biblical tradition with natural law, et cetera, right, so, and that shapes the Declaration of Independence.
Speaker 2:So if you look in the, if you have your pocket constitution and you have your Declaration of Independence. If you look in the middle of the bulk of the declaration is the charges against the king. And then you look for the charge where it says he has joined with others, and that's the king and the parliament okay. And it's right there where it says he has joined with others, that there's this extraordinary. It's's the specific phrasing is he has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution comma and unacknowledged by our laws.
Speaker 2:Now, in Jefferson's draft that was our constitutions plural. But the Second Continental Congress in the final draft says no, no, no, we mean our constitution, meaning the British Constitution of Liberty, which is ours, and they over in London, the imperial center, are violating it. And so that constitution, our constitution, that's the British common law constitution. Well, that British common law constitution gives birth to the United States. The United States gives birth to other revolutions and claims for liberty and independence from monarchies or empires or tyrannies or whatever. So this is the marvelous common law mind in the American line. You can put together John Locke and Enlightenment, principles about revolution and individual natural rights, and you can put together Montesquieu on constitutionalism, constitutional history, and you can put together biblical phrases and Christianity, put together natural law, and all of that is a package of ideas for anybody. You don't have to be British or English or come from English stock. That means a tradition of liberty and the rule of law and constitutionalism that's open to anybody.
Speaker 2:And then one last point this is also why the american revolution is the moderate revolution. So again, the declaration of independence has striking phrases at the beginning the laws of nature and nature's god, and we hold these truths to be self-evident. All men are created equal absolutely astounding phrase right and individual natural rights that are unalienable, can't be taken away from you. Among them, life, liberty and pursuit of happiness. Okay, striking, revolutionary, radical statements, they said.
Speaker 2:But the bulk of the document is English common law, all the ways in which the king has violated these, acknowledged, accepted centuries-old principles of law. And then this phrase in the middle of it our Constitution. Okay, that makes the American Revolution moderate, because our revolution is not to completely overturn. Pull up from the roots that's what radical means from the roots and start completely from scratch. That's eventually what happened in the French Revolution from 1789 onward right, and other revolutions, the Russian Revolution, you can think of completely radical, ripping up the roots completely, starting over. The American Revolution is the moderate revolution, because our claim is that, look, we all had a good thing here, london to the American colonies. You screwed it up, you people in London, and we have to separate, but we want to keep this good thing. We have this British constitution, this common law tradition and the Enlightenment philosophical principles and the biblical tradition, etc. So we're not as radical a revolution. And this common law element and the reference to Magna Carta helps us to see that.
Speaker 1:And this common law element and the reference to Magna Carta helps us to see that Wonderful. And I will say, as a teacher, it wasn't until later in my career that I discovered William Blackstone. So for any educators out there, our friends at the Jack Miller Center actually have a really good page on this, so I will make sure to link it. But, dr Kreis, as always, thank you so much for your expertise and for really getting us to understand that all of these works really did affect our founding and how we, kind of you know, live today. Thank you, Thanks, Liz.
