Question

No freemen shall be taken or imprisoned . . . or in any way destroyed, . . . except by the lawful judgment of his peers or by the law of the land. What inferences can you make from this passage from the Magna Carta? Check all that apply.

a. King John had unlawfully imprisoned some people.
b. The Magna Carta supported the idea of a trial by jury.
c. Only the barons had the right to delay a trial.
d. An effective court system was already in place.

Answer 1

The Magna Carta suggests that King John may have unlawfully imprisoned people and supports the concept of a trial by jury and the establishment of a stronger legal system, while there is no specific mention of barons having the right to delay trials.

Step-by-step explanation:

From the passage "No freemen shall be taken or imprisoned... or in any way destroyed... except by the lawful judgment of his peers or by the law of the land" from the Magna Carta, we can infer several things:

• King John had previously taken actions that were regarded as unlawful, including imprisoning individuals without the judgment of their peers, which led to the inclusion of this clause in the Magna Carta.

• The Magna Carta explicitly supported the idea of a trial by jury, ensuring that a free man's fate was decided by an impartial group of peers.There is no mention of barons specifically having the right to delay a trial, so we cannot infer option 'c'.

• An effective court system may not have been fully established at the time of King John, but the principles outlined in the Magna Carta lead towards the establishment of a more robust legal system that includes due process.