Brooklyn Law School will host a traveling exhibit commemorating the 800th anniversary of Magna Carta September 14th to 28th. The exhibit will be open to the public on the first floor of Brooklyn Law School, 250 Joralemon Street from September 14th to 19th. Public viewing hours are 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday-Friday, and 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Saturday. The exhibit will then move to Brooklyn Borough Hall, where it will be open to the public from September 21st to 28th. Sponsored by the ABA Standing Committee on the Law Library of Congress, the exhibit, Magna Carta: Enduring Legacy 1215-2015, features 16 banners, 13 of which reflect spectacular images of Magna Carta and precious manuscripts, books and other documents from the Library of Congress’s rare book collections. The exhibit features a video by the Library of Congress, showing the Law Librarian and the exhibit curator handling the materials and explaining their significance.
In conjunction with the exhibit, the Law School will hold a special day-long symposium From Runnymede to Philadelphia to Cyberspace: The Enduring Legacy of Magna Carta on September 17. The symposium is a global gathering of renowned legal scholars, authors, artists, historians, public officials, librarians, and archivists from around the world who will explore the continuing impact of this seminal document on U.S. law, civil rights and liberties, art, the role of libraries and archives in the Digital Age, and law and order in Cyberspace. BLS Library Director and Associate Professor Janet Sinder will serve as moderator of a morning panel called Secrets of the Archives: Why We Preserve Documents in the Digital Age. Professor Sinder is one of a several BLS faculty members taking part in the event. For the full program of events, click here.
In advance of the exhibit, BLS Library Associate Librarian Linda Holmes has put together a presentation in the book display case on the first floor of the library with items from the library collection. The titles in the display are:
- Magna Carta: The Foundation of Freedom 1215-2015 by Nicholas Vincent and others (Call # KD3946 .V56 2015). Contents are: Magna Carta in Context: a general survey from 1215 to the present day; Law Before Magna Carta: the Anglo-Saxon law codes and their successors before 1215; Plantagenet Tyranny and Lawmaking; The Tyranny of King John; Magna Carta: Defeat into Victory; Magna Carta in the Later Middle Ages; Magna Carta against the King; Magna Carta and the American Age of Reason; Magna Carta in the 19th Century; From World War to World Heritage: Magna Carta in the 20th Century; and 21st-Century Magna Carta
- Magna Carta: Law, Liberty, Legacy edited by Claire Breay and Julian Harrison (Call # KD3946 .M345 2015). Contents are: Kingship and crisis; Runnymede and the granting of Magna Carta; Revival and survival; English liberties; Colonies and revolutions; Radicalism and reform; Empire and after; Magna Carta in the modern age; the text of Magna Carta 1215.
- Magna Carta and the Rule of Law edited by Daniel Barstow Magraw and others (Call # KD3946 .M33 2014). The book is a comprehensive and insightful new book from the American Bar Association that takes a fresh look at Magna Carta and its impacts on various issues and the rule of law in light of contemporary legal concerns. It includes an examination of the following aspects of Magna Carta; historical background, importance to constitutionalism and the rule of law, impact on the United States Constitution, executive power, role as a foundation for women’s rights and individual rights (such as habeas corpus), relevance to international law, and much more.
- Magna Carta Uncovered by Anthony Arlidge and Igor Judge (Call # KD3946 .A75 2014). The authors (Aldridge, a Queen’s Counsel for more than 30 years who in 1990 argued a case on the meaning of clause 40 of Magna Carta, and Judge, a retired Lord Chief Justice of England and Wales) of this 238 page history provide a detailed explanation of the Magna Carta and its place in English (and subsequently American) law.
