Debunking Magna Carta Leads Back To Serfdom – Paul Craig Roberts

In my column for the 800th anniversary of Magna CartaI wrote: ‘A number of legal scholars have made the irrelevant point that the Magna Carta protected rights of the Church, nobles, and free men who were not enserfed, a small percentage of the population in the early 13th century. We hear the same about the US Constitution – it was something the rich did for themselves. I have no sympathy for debunking human achievements that, in the end, gave ordinary people liberty.’
My celebration of this document was reposted today on a number of websites including as far away as Hong Kong. But the New York Times and a dolt of a law professor at the University of Chicago named Tom Ginsburg chose to debunk the Magna Carta on its 800th anniversary. ‘Stop Revering Magna Carta,’ Ginsburg tells us. Ginsburg alleges that the Magna Carta ‘wasn’t effective. In fact, it was a failure.’ The law professor maintains that Magna Carta’s fame rests on myths, not on reality.
What absolute nonsense. In this age of American Caesars, we need to celebrate the Magna Carta, not debunk it.

This post was published at Paul Craig Roberts on June 15, 2015.