Читать книгу Magna Carta: A Commentary on the Great Charter of King John. With an Historical Introduction онлайн

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The terms of this bargain, however, had to be drawn up in proper legal form, so as to bear record for all time to the exact nature of the provisions therein contained, and also to the authenticity of John’s consent thereto. It was, therefore, reduced to writing, and the resulting document was naturally couched in the form invariably used for all irrevocable grants intended to descend from father to son, namely, a feudal charter, authenticated by the addition of a seal—just as in the case of a grant of land, and with many of the clauses appropriate to such a grant.^[190]

John grants to the freemen of England and their heirs certain specified rights and liberties, as though these were merely so many hides or acres of land. Concessimus etiam omnibus liberis hominibus regni nostri, pro nobis et haeredibus nostris in perpetuum, omnes libertates subscriptas, habendas et tenendas, eis et haeredibus suis, de nobis et haeredibus nostris.^[191] The legal effect of such a grant is hard to determine; and insuperable difficulties beset any attempt to expound its legal consequences in terms of modern law.^[192] In truth, the form and substance of Magna Carta are badly mated. Its substance consists of a number of legal enactments and political and civil rights; its form is borrowed from the feudal lawyer’s book of styles for conferring a title to landed estate.^[193]