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‘Legal illiteracy’ warning on Magna Carta anniversary

Jun 19, 2015
Professor David Clark is an expert on Magna Carta. He said that while Australia had a very strong democracy, research showed that knowledge of its history was very weak.

Professor David Clark is an expert on Magna Carta. He said that while Australia had a very strong democracy, research showed that knowledge of its history was very weak.

On the week of the 800th anniversary of the Magna Carta, Australia’s leading expert on the medieval text, which is often cited as the basis for democratic rights and freedom, said most Australians are ignorant of its importance, and that many are “legally illiterate”.

Professor David Clark, a senior lecturer at Flinders University’s Law School, said that although Australia remained one of the freest countries in the world, this should not be taken for granted as one of the accepted foundations of democracy is an informed citizenry.

“The Magna Carta, signed on 15 June 1215 by the King and his Barons has become an icon of three central values: a general right to personal freedom, the subjection of the executive to the law, and the right to representative government,” said Professor Clark.

“These values and others are part of what we call the rule of law. Australia ranks very highly on indices of rule of law states.

“A 2014 ranking by the World Justice Project ranked Australia as 8th out of 99 countries behind New Zealand and several Scandinavian countries. While a 2015 study of the link between the rule of law and good governance rated Australia right at the top of world rankings.

“But there is no reason to be complacent, because the evidence shows that most Australians are ignorant of most of this.

“Successive studies of civic knowledge show that knowledge of basic civics remains very weak while knowledge of the history that lies behind our institutions and values is even worse.”

An international survey the knowledge and understanding of Magna Carta of 23 countries by a British polling organization showed that only 53% of the Australian sample had heard of Magna Carta. This ranked below the UK (79%) and the US (65%) and behind Hungary, Italy and Spain.

“In the past the public knew a great deal about Magna Carta and the later development of our legal and political institutions,” said Professor Clark.

“In the 1920s and 1930s, articles on Magna Carta were common in the press, with the National Library Digital Newspaper database returning a total of 2048 articles on Magna Carta in the 30 years to 1949. In contrast, only 765 were returned in the 40 years to 1990.”

Professor Clark said that at a time when citizenship and its responsibilities are being hotly debated, it was worth reflecting on the Australian citizenship pledge, which includes: “I pledge my loyalty to Australia and its people whose democratic beliefs I share, whose rights and liberties I respect and whose laws I will uphold and obey.”

“It’s hard to understand how most Australians could effectively uphold and obey those laws when many effectively legally illiterate,” said Professor Clark.

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