My Magna Carta
My Magna Carta is an international creative essay competition
for 11 to 18 year olds in celebration of the 800th anniversary
of the sealing of Magna Carta. Young people from across
the UK, the English Speaking Union’s member countries and
throughout the Commonwealth are invited to create their very
own Magna Carta for the 21st century.
My Magna Carta is a partnership between The English-Speaking Union and Royal Holloway,
University of London. We are grateful to the Magna Carta 800th Anniversary Committee for
their invaluable support.
Contact information
For further information visit
royalholloway.ac.uk/magnacarta
@RoyalHolloway
Royal Holloway, University of London
Egham, Surrey, TW20 0EX
T: +44 (0)1784 434455
royalholloway.ac.uk
The English-Speaking Union
What is Magna Carta?
Magna Carta was a 1215 peace treaty. It was
designed to address the complaints of a group
of barons against King John and avoid civil war.
It failed – ten weeks after the charter’s issue, the
Pope annulled it at John’s request, and the barons
resumed their war with John. It was only when John
died in 1216 and his young son Henry III reissued
the charter that its clauses started to take effect.
Magna Carta was an early attempt by a group of
people to limit the power of their ruler and to shape
how they were governed. Magna Carta has become
much more than a historic document – it has
served as an idea used by very different groups of
people when trying to defend their rights, or argue
for new ones. The central message, that no one is
above the law, has remained, but what this means
in day to day life depends on who you ask, and
where they live.
Writing a modern Magna Carta
Your task is to write a modern Magna Carta
that addresses the pressing issues and
defends the rights that matter to you and your
community.
You can include issues that stretch beyond where
you live and that concern the whole world if you
wish, or you can think more locally to produce a
charter specifically designed for your region or
country or a particular group of people.
You need to prepare a persuasive argument that
clearly identifies what rights you are calling for,
what problems you are addressing, and why this
matters. Start by considering how to sum up the
central message of your charter in just a few words.
Lay out your arguments with short and clear
sentences. Think about how your charter would be
read by someone who disagreed – what problems
could arise from your claims?
Would your charter damage the rights of other
people? Will people in other places or facing
different issues be persuaded to support
your charter?
Some current issues to think about
• access to good food and clean water:
Magna Carta set out principles to make sure
communities were able to protect and use the
natural world to draw water, collect fuel, and
grow food. What do we have today that defends
these rights and are they strong enough?
• sovereignty and citizenship: the legal and political
traditions from Magna Carta support many
constitutions in the world; these democratic
traditions face new challenges in current times.
Magna Carta defended the right to protest
against tyranny, but how can we defend this
today? Can we rule on when a protest is proper
and when it is just a riot?
• the right to privacy: private lives can be hard to
protect when people talk, plan, and shop online.
Companies and governments can collect and
use data about what we look at, to watch us and
to watch each other. Can we protect rights in the
digital world, when the internet belongs to no one
and everyone?
• freedom to be ourselves: Magna Carta tried to
manage demands for freedom of expression and
for tolerance of diversity. How can we do this
today, when some groups do not wish to tolerate
others or treat all groups as equal?
Magna Carta’s impact
Some of the ideas in Magna Carta about how a
society should work have been developed over
the last 800 years into written constitutions,
powerful arguments about the rule of law, and bills
of human rights.
The impact of Magna Carta can be seen in:
• t he UK Parliament
ritten constitutions
•w
• t he Commonwealth
• the right to liberty
• the right to trial by jury
Over the centuries, Magna Carta has developed a
much broader meaning than its authors could ever
have intended it to have. In the process, Magna
Carta has taken on a semi-mythical status. It has
been given many new meanings over the centuries,
and clauses written to solve the problems posed by
one particular king have been adopted by all sorts
of people to solve a multitude of problems.
Today, there are calls for a new Magna Carta
to protect human rights and promote good
governance in societies facing challenges that were
not dreamed of 800 years ago. This competition
invites you to think about what a new Magna Carta
should cover, and to imagine how it too might still
be being discussed and celebrated in centuries
to come.
Further reading
You can find useful information on Magna Carta on
the following websites:
bl.uk/treasures/magnacarta
teachingenglish.org.uk/magna-carta
parliament.uk/education
magnacarta800th.com/schools
Royal Holloway, University of London
Royal Holloway is one of the UK’s leading researchintensive universities, with academic departments
spanning the arts and humanities, sciences, social
sciences, management and economics. Magna
Carta was sealed in Runnymede, a stone’s throw
from Royal Holloway.
The English Speaking Union
The English-Speaking Union was formed with a
vision to foster understanding between peoples
and communities through the use of the English
language. The ESU empowers people of all ages
to discover their voice and become confident
participants in society. esu.org.uk
Magna Carta 800th Anniversary Committee
The committee’s aim is to raise the profile of the
anniversary and deliver a number of key national
and international aspirations to commemorate
800 years of Magna Carta. magnacarta800th.com
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