SIR – There has been considerable discussion in your letters page concerning the Human Rights Act and how its repeal would contradict the legacy of Magna Carta. Often an appeal is made to the charter which is inconsistent with its historical legacy.
The significance of Magna Carta is that it placed a limitation on royal authority, whereby church property was protected, barons were protected from illegal arrests, and feudal payments were limited to the crown. The rights of the common people were not extended by the charter, whose lot remained unaltered.
The Human Rights Act and the European Convention on Human Rights are relatively recent innovations, and before their introduction, the UK had access to case law, precedence as well as statutory law, which had developed over the centuries.
These instruments had served us well in the administration of justice and would continue to do so, should the Human Rights Act be repealed.
Alex Suchi, Allerton Road, Bradford
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