Magna Carta is more significant today for everything it has come to symbolise than it was when it was first sealed 800 years ago, according to Brunel’s Professor of Political Science Justin Fisher.
The Director of Brunel University London’s Magna Carta Institute, Prof Fisher is also the curator of the Magna Carta Today exhibition in Runnymede – a monument to the great charter’s relevance to modern day liberal democracies.
Housing a facsimile of Magna Carta itself, the exhibition is open to the public and, on Monday June 15th, will be central to events marking the 800 years since the important historical and legal document was sealed by King John.
Prof Fisher, head of Politics, History and the Brunel Law School, said: “We can view Magna Carta both as a document of historical and legal significance; and as a principle underlying how we live, through equality under the rule of law and through accountability.
“Magna Carta matters both for what it stated in 1215 and, perhaps more significantly now, for what it has come to symbolise, even though this was almost certainly not what was envisaged or intended by those who drafted the Great Charter 800 years ago.”
On Monday June 15th, Prof Fisher will be attending a commemorative event at the Runnymede Magna Carta Centre from 12.30am. Lord Mitchell, who kindly loaned the facsimile to the exhibition, will also attend.