XXXVI
Nihil detur vel capiatur de cetero pro brevi inquisitionis de vita vel membris, sed gratis concedatur et non negetur.
36
Nothing is to be given or taken in future for a writ for an inquest concerning life or members, but it is to be given without payment and not denied.
Audio commentary
Magna Carta 1215
Choose commentary
None
General
Secondary
Academic
All
Please note: commentaries are presently available only for clauses marked with *; more commentary to be added in due course.
- By topic
- All clauses
- Preface
- Clause 01
- Clause 02
- Clause 03
- Clause 04
- Clause 05
- Clause 06
- Clause 07
- Clause 08
- Clause 09 *
- Clause 10 *
- Clause 11 *
- Clause 12 *
- Clause 13 *
- Clause 14 *
- Clause 15
- Clause 16 *
- Clause 17
- Clause 18
- Clause 19
- Clause 20 *
- Clause 21 *
- Clause 22 *
- Clause 23 *
- Clause 24 *
- Clause 25
- Clause 26 *
- Clause 27 *
- Clause 28 *
- Clause 29 *
- Clause 30 *
- Clause 31 *
- Clause 32 *
- Clause 33 *
- Clause 34
- Clause 35 *
- Clause 36 *
- Clause 37 *
- Clause 38
- Clause 39 *
- Clause 40 *
- Clause 41 *
- Clause 42 *
- Clause 43 *
- Clause 44
- Clause 45
- Clause 46 *
- Clause 47
- Clause 48
- Clause 49 *
- Clause 50
- Clause 51
- Clause 52 *
- Clause 53
- Clause 54
- Clause 55 *
- Clause 56
- Clause 57
- Clause 58
- Clause 59
- Clause 60 *
- Suffix A
- Suffix B
- Reflections
Clause 36 represents a response to the developing use of jury trial to replace trial by combat as the usual means of deciding the guilt or innocence of men accused of felonies, that is, of serious crimes punishable by hanging or mutilation. To secure a jury, it was necessary to obtain a royal writ ordering that jurors be summoned to investigate the case. The justification for this course of action was commonly that the accusation had been made out of malice, an allegation which the jurors were ostensibly required to look into, though in fact they frequently simply convicted the suspect or, much more often, acquitted him. It took time, and a lot of experimentation, for this process to become settled, and in John’s reign there may have been more than one sort of writ in use, while the king and his justices charged varying prices – usually quite modest, but sometimes very high – for issuing a writ, and might sometimes refuse to provide one at all. The purpose of the clause was to ensure that nobody risking life and limb in a royal court was denied jury trial if he wanted it, and in that it appears to have been successful.