Subordination of Leader

• The leader of Western societies, such as the king, enjoyed total power over the people and over the state before the Magna Carta. Clause 61 of the Magna Carta, also known as the "security clause," established a committee of 25 barons who could overrule the power of the king and actually seize his property to enforce their decisions against him. This was the first time this concept of "distrait" was applied to a monarch, when it was applied to King John. With this innovation, monarchs had to bargain with barons and clerics in order to avoid civil war.
  
  

Legal Justice

• The Magna Carta recognized individual rights to legal justice. One of its clauses said that a free man cannot be imprisoned or exiled without submission to the law. The ruler could no longer imprison political opponents or undesirable citizens. It also forbade justice from being denied, delayed or sold. Property rights are fundamental to individual rights, and the Magna Carta recognized the property rights of widows and heirs.
  
  

Government Uniformity

• The Magna Carta contained clauses that provided for the uniformity of measures for cloth, corn, wine and ale. The document set down rules for local government officials to ensure uniform conduct throughout the realm. This policy of uniformity aided in the efficiency of both commerce and civil government.
  
  

American Legacy

• The Magna Carta granted concessions to barons, merchants, townsmen, members of the lower aristocracy and the Church. However, most members of English society remained without any political protections for hundreds of years after the document was written. The Magna Carta served as a necessary precursor to the American Declaration of Independence and the U.S. Constitution because it established the precedent of limiting the power of the king and his government to the law. Both the Magna Carta and the U.S. Constitution were written to protect the individual from arbitrary power.