Constitution Day Speaker Highlights Parallels Between U.S. Constitution and England’s Magna Carta
Each year on September 17, the United States recognizes the day the U.S. Constitutional Convention first signed and adopted our nation’s Constitution in 1787. This year, The King’s College celebrated Constitution Day with a guest lecture from A. Edward Major, senior counsel at Kagan, Lubic, Lepper, Finkelstein & Gold Attorneys at Law in New York City.
“‘As much as they do this to the least of those, they do it to me’,” said A. Edward Major. “That is the essence of Magna Carta.”
Each year on September 17, the United States recognizes the day the U.S. Constitutional Convention first signed and adopted our nation’s Constitution in 1787. This year, The King’s College celebrated Constitution Day with a guest lecture from A. Edward Major, senior counsel at Kagan, Lubic, Lepper, Finkelstein & Gold Attorneys at Law in New York City.
Major shared his thoughts on some of the similarities found in the U.S. Constitution and the Magna Carta, a document which guaranteed fundamental rights and freedoms that a group of barons used in forcing England’s King John to approve in 1215.
Though the original document was thrown out by the Pope just two months later, King John’s son later signed another Magna Carta with “teeth” to enforce it, and though the majority of it is difficult to read, being written in Medieval Latin, “the Magna Carta has never been more cited in law and in history than it has been in recent years,” said Major. “It’s fantastic.”
Major highlighted the 39th and 40th clauses of the list of 63 found in the English document and pointed out the parallel similarities to the Constitution.
Clause #39 reads that “No freeman shall be taken or in any way ruined except by judgement of his peers or the law of the land,” while Clause #40 reads that “No one will we sell, to no one will we delay right or justice.”
“These two concepts are really quite closely connected,” said Major, “and in that way, we understand freedom is in some ways being equated with security and property ownership and not the king’s or anyone else’s whim.
“It’s a huge, huge concept that protects us to this day,” said Major.
The importance of Magna Carta has grown over time, as people have appealed to it for its practical opposition and justification to any opposition to liberty.
Following his lecture, Major took a few questions from the audience and encouraged King’s students to use their time in college well.
“Make sure you make time to do the very best you can while you have this situation,” said Major. “You have such a unique arrangement here in lower Manhattan to have a Christian college like this. You really are an anomaly, and you have such a great opportunity here…. Please, for the sake of the church, make the most of it.”
For more than 75 years, The King’s College has educated young leaders to integrate their faith, ethics and morality seamlessly into their lives and careers. The only traditional Christian liberal arts college or university located in the heart of New York City, King’s prepares students for principled leadership around the world. Visit tkc.edu for more information or request a personalized visit by calling 888.969.7200.