La Magna Carta: realidad y mito del constitucionalismo pactista medieval

Abstract

This article describes: the origins of Magna Charta in the crossroad of conflicts of the reign of John Lackland; its variegated content of rights and obligations of a feudal nature (including the judicial guarantees of its famous Chapter XXXIX) and the trajectory of Magna Charta in the English and also in the American constitutionalism. Finally, it analyses Magna Charta in the legal, political and cultural context of the Middle Ages, as a typical product thereof; it revues other laws and legal institutions of a comparable kind (specially in Aragon) and it concludes underlining the importance of the constitutionalist movement in the XVII century that granted Magna Charta with a meaning that exceeds its historical origins. Submission date: 14/12/2008 Acceptance date: 21/02/2009