Magna Carta, the rule of law, and the limits on government

Jesus Fernandez-Villaverde

International Review of Law and Economics, 2016, vol. 47, issue S, 22-28

Abstract: This paper surveys the legal tradition that links Magna Carta with the modern concepts of the rule of law and the limits on government. It documents that the original understanding of the rule of law included substantive commitments to individual freedom and limited government. Then, it attempts to explain how and why such commitments were lost to a formalist interpretation of the rule of law from 1848 to 1939. The paper concludes by arguing that a revival of the substantive commitments of the rule of law is central to reshaping modern states.

Keywords: Rule of law; Magna Carta; Legal theory; Limited government (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: D78 K10 N43 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2016
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0144818816300229
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

Related works:
Working Paper: Magna Carta, the Rule of Law, and the Limits on Government (2015)
Working Paper: Magna Carta, the Rule of Law and the Limits on Government (2015)
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:irlaec:v:47:y:2016:i:s:p:22-28

DOI: 10.1016/j.irle.2016.05.006

Access Statistics for this article

International Review of Law and Economics is currently edited by C. Ott, A. W. Katz and H-B. Schäfer

More articles in International Review of Law and Economics from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu ().