39. No freeman shall be taken or imprisoned or disseised or exiled or in any way destroyed, nor will we go upon him nor send upon him, except by the lawful judgment of his peers or by the law of the land.
40. To no one will we sell, to no one will we refuse or delay, right or justice.

-Magna Carta, 1215

June 15, 2015 will mark the 800th anniversary of the signing of "The Great Charter" of 1215 (Magna Carta in Latin, by which the documents is most popularly known), the first in a long series of treaties and charters which abridge the rights of the English monarchy and guarantied basic rights to its subjects.  In this sense, Magna Carta is a pivotal development in legal history.

Magna Carta was agreed by King John of England at Runnymede, west of London, on June 15, 2015.  King John was forced to sign the charter by a group of rebel barons. In it, the Crown guarantied the rights of the Church and nobility but also set in writing rights of all subjects (including commoners) to speedy justice and trial by jury.  It also established a council of 25 barons with oversight over royal taxes.

The charter was annulled by Pope Innocent III, leading to the First Barons' War, which forced the regency government of his John's son Henry III to reissue and affirm much of the document in 1216.  It was again reissued in 1225 and 1297, at which point it was confirmed as part of England's statutes.

Magna Carta is widely regarded as one of the most important documents in the history of law.  The British lawyer and judge Lord Alfred Denning describing it as "the greatest constitutional document of all times – the foundation of the freedom of the individual against the arbitrary authority of the despot".

Four originals of the 1215 text are still in existence.  They will be displayed this year together at the British Library in London.

The text of Magna Carta can be found, among other places, at WikiSource.