英国是一个没有成文宪法的国家

英国是一个没有成文宪法的国家。

他们的宪法是由一系列的文件和法案组成，其中具有奠基意义的一份，就是在1215年6月15日，由英国国王与贵族们签订的《大宪章》。

这张书写在羊皮纸卷上的文件在历史上第一次限制了封建君主的权力，日后成为了英国君主立宪制的法律基石。

大宪章（拉丁文Magna Carter, 英文Great Charter）是英国于1215年订立的宪法，用来限制英国国王（主要是当时的约翰）的绝对权力。

订立大宪章的主要原因是因为教皇、英王约翰及封建贵族对皇室权力出现不同的意见。

大宪章要求皇室放弃部分权力，及尊重司法过程，接受王权受法律的限制。

大宪章是英国在建立宪法政治这长远历史过程的开始。

历史诺曼人于1066年开始入侵英格兰，在诺曼人成为英国的国王后，于十一及十二世纪逐渐强大。

他们建立的集权政府，加上本地盎格鲁—撒克逊人原来的统治方法，还有盎格鲁人和诺曼人在诺曼第所拥有的土地，使英国国王在1199年成为欧洲最有权力国王。

当英王约翰在十三世纪初即位之后，一连串的事件却令英格兰的封建贵族起来反抗他，并要求限制绝对的王权。

当时英王约翰受到的压力来自三个方面：首先是他夺得王位的手法遭人非议，前任英王狮心王理察在1199年死后，出现两名继承人。

约翰将他的对手，亦即他的侄子不列颠尼亚瑟囚禁，之后亚瑟便失去音讯。

很多人认为约翰是将他的亲人暗杀以取得王位；第二当时法国国王占领了英国在诺曼第大部份的土地。

英国的贵族要求国王取回失去的领土，约翰即在1214年发动对法国作战，却遭逢大败。

此外，约翰与教皇就坎特伯雷大主教的任命出现争执，于是教庭向英格兰施以绝罚，约翰被迫于1213年向教皇屈服。

1215年6月10日，英格兰的封建贵族在伦敦聚集，挟持英格兰国王约翰。

约翰被迫赞成贵族提出的“男爵法案”(Articles of the Barons)。

同年6月15日，约翰在兰尼美德（RunnyMede）为法案盖上皇室的盖章。

而贵族则在6月19日重申对约翰效忠。

最后皇室秘书将国王与贵族间的协议正式登录，即成为最初的大宪章，并将副本抄送至各地，由指定的皇室官员及主教保存。

1215年的大宪章中最为重要的条文是第六十一条，即所谓“安全法”。

根据该条的规定，由二十五名贵族组成的委员会有权随时召开会议，具有否决国王命令的权力；并且可以使用武力，占据国王的城堡和财产。

这种权力是出自中古时期的一种法律程序，但加之于国王却是史无前例。

英王约翰自始即无接受大宪章约束的诚意，他是在武力之下才被迫在文件上签署，特别是第六十一条几乎褫夺了国王所有的权力。

就在贵族离开伦敦各自返回封地之后，约翰立即宣布废弃大宪章，教皇英诺森三世亦训斥大宪章为“以武力及恐惧，强加于国王的无耻条款”，教皇否定了任何贵族对权力的要求，称这样做破坏了国王的尊严。

随后英国即陷入内战。

约翰在1216年10月18日，当内战正酣时病死，九岁的亨利三世即位，皇室人员希望年幼的新王会为贵族所接受。

新王即位后，战事终结。

10月12日，皇室大臣以亨利的名义再发出大宪章，但当中部分条款，包括第六十一条都被删去。

之后于1217年和1225年，亨利三世都曾再次发布大宪章。

1225年的一次由十八岁的亨利亲自发出，并删除至只有三十七条。

亨利三世统治五十六年后，在1272年逝世。

他逝世时，大宪章已成为既定的英国法律，日后的国王亦难以像约翰一样将它完全推翻。

亨利三世的儿子，爱德华一世在1297年10月12日发布最后一次修订的大宪章，作为“肯定法案”的一部分。

Magna Carta (Latin for "the Great Charter"), also called Magna Carta Libertatum (Latin for "the Great Charter of the Liberties"), is a charter agreed by King John of England at Runnymede, near Windsor, on 15 June 1215.[a] First drafted by the Archbishop of Canterbury to make peace between the unpopular King and a group of rebel barons, it promised the protection of church rights, protection for the barons from illegal imprisonment, access to swift justice, and limitations on feudal paymentsto the Crown, to be implemented through a council of 25 barons. Neither side stood behind their commitments, and the charter was annulled by Pope Innocent III, leading to the First Barons' War. After John's death, the regency government of his young son, Henry III, reissued the document in 1216, stripped of some of its more radical content, in an unsuccessful bid to build political support for their cause. At the end of the war in 1217, it formed part of the peace treaty agreed at Lambeth, where the document acquired the name Magna Carta, to distinguish it from the smaller Charter of the Forest which was issued at the same time. Short of funds, Henry reissued thecharter again in 1225 in exchange for a grant of new taxes; his son, Edward I, repeated the exercise in 1297, this time confirming it as part ofEngland's statute law.The charter became part of English political life and was typically renewed by each monarch in turn, although as time went by and the fledgling English Parliament passed new laws, it lost some of its practical significance. At the end of the 16th century there was an upsurge in interest in Magna Carta. Lawyers and historians at the time believed that there was an ancient English constitution, going back to the days of the Anglo-Saxons, that protected individual English freedoms. They argued that the Norman invasion of 1066 had overthrown these rights, and that Magna Carta had been a popular attempt to restore them, making the charter an essential foundation for the contemporary powers of Parliament and legal principles such as habeas corpus. Although this historical account was badly flawed, jurists such as Sir Edward Coke used Magna Carta extensively in the early 17th century, arguing against the divine right of kings propounded by the Stuart monarchs. Both JamesI and his son Charles I attempted to suppress the discussion of Magna Carta, until the issue was curtailed by the English Civil War of the 1640s and the execution of Charles.The political myth of Magna Carta and its protection of ancient personal liberties persisted after the Glorious Revolution of 1688 until well into the 19th century. It influenced the early American colonists in the ThirteenColonies and the formation of the American Constitution in 1787, which became the supreme law of the land in the new republic of the United States.[b] Research by Victorian historians showed that the original 1215 charter had concerned the medieval relationship between the monarch and the barons, rather than the rights of ordinary people, but the charter remained a powerful, iconic document, even after almost all of its content was repealed from the statute books in the 19th and 20th centuries. Magna Carta still forms an important symbol of liberty today, often cited by politicians and campaigners, and is held in great respect by the British and American legal communities, Lord 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".[1]In the 21st century, four exemplifications of the original 1215 charter remain in existence, held by the British Library and the cathedralsof Lincoln and Salisbury. There are also a handful of the subsequent charters in public and private ownership, including copies of the 1297 charter in both the United States and Australia. The original charters were writtenon parchment sheets using quill pens, in heavily abbreviated medieval Latin, which was the convention for legal documents at that time. Each was sealed with the royal great seal (made of beeswax and resin sealing wax): very few of the seals have survived. Although scholars refer to the 63 numbered "clauses" of Magna Carta, this is a modern system of numbering, introduced by Sir WilliamBlackstone in 1759; the original charter formed a single, long unbroken text. The four original 1215 charters were displayed together at the British Library for one day, 3 February 2015, to mark the 800th anniversary of Magna Carta.。