On this day, 790 years ago, the rule of law was affirmed in Britain. On June 15, 1215, King John of England signed the Magna Carta at Runnymede. Viewed as the basis of mon law, which greatly influenced the foundations of American society and government, the Magna Carta recognized a law greater than the will of the king. As Winston Churchill spoke of “a law which is above the King and which even he must not break,” Lord Acton too said similarly, “Socrates taught a law independent of the state and superior to it.”

The Magna Carta can be viewed, in Churchill’s words, as a “reaffirmation of a supreme law and its expression in a general charter,” which “is the great work of Magna Carta; and this alone justifies the respect in which men have held it.”