SIR. EDWARD COKE, MAGNA CARTA AND JUDICIAL INDEPENDENCE
The English history circa 10th to 14th Century AD, is culminated with series of civil wars, and knight crusaders. The inquiry into the era of Norman-Angevin to Plantagenet dynasty, gave birth to the signing of the Magna carta. The refinement of text to the Magna carta, for certain right and liberties, through series of negotiations, with then existing English Monarch, the Subject, and the Roman Church, from the year 1215 to 1225; formulated a charter that will become a symbol, and a defense, during a battle of oppression, between the governed and the governor. And, in the year 1628, the rivalry that was emerging between the English Monarch and the Subject, set-out the doctrinal tone of the Magna carta, to give birth to the ‘Habeas Corpus’ Act and the ‘Petition of Right’ in the English Common law, as an initiated efforts of Sir. Edward Coke.
Thou, is the rise of an ardent advocate, for the right of Englishmen and Judicial Independence, under a ferocious Monarchy, with strings of conspired attacks, on the grounds of Royal prerogative, against the efforts of Sir. Edward Coke. And in the detest of King James I of England, recognized him, as the father of the 'Common law'.
Who then is Edward Coke? He was born in 1st February 1552 in Mileham, Mid Norfolk, to a prosperous Barrister, and a Bencher of Lincoln’s inn, Mr. Robert Coke, and to a Mother, Winifred Knightley. Edward Coke, early Education at the age of 8years, started at Norwich Free Grammar School, established by Herbert de Losinga, Bishop of Norwich. In his 15th birthday, in the year 1567, he was successfully admitted to Trinity College, Cambridge. And spent 3years of his academic study there. Onwards, in the year 1571, out of Trinity College, got himself admitted to Clifford’s inn and Inns of Chancery, to learn the basics of the law, as initial legal education, before transfer to the inns of Court. And finally, on the 24th April 1572, at the age of 20 years, having completed his basic legal education, was further transferred to the Inner Temple, which initiated his second phase of legal education for the next 6 to 7years, and called to bar as a barrister at law, in the year 1579 at his 28th birthday.
His legal talent in handling notable cases, earned him a political favour, to be elected and serve as Solicitor General, which was later followed with another promotion to the office of Attorney General, under the appointment of Queen Elizabeth I, at the year 1594 in his 42nd birthday. His prosecutorial skill and success, resulted, in his further promotion by the succeeding King of England, after the death of Queen Elizabeth the first, King James I, to the office of Chief Justice of the Common Pleas, in the year 1606, at his 54th birthday, as well knighted by the King. In assumption to that office, he uphold the pledge of exalting and protecting the Right of the Englishmen, and importantly, the wrong application of the law at the Ecclesiastical Court, established by the Monarch, with nearly unlimited power, used in a form of coercion, persecution and forcible self-incrimination in religious trials during his era. Barrister Nicholas Fuller, a victim, was in the custody for contempt of that Ecclesiastical Court, of English realm, as the Court of High Commission, which Edward Coke defined the suits running in that Court, as Notorious suits, and went ahead to issue a writs of Prohibition against the Bishop Richard Bancroft, who was leading that Court, and summoned them before the Court of King’s Bench, with Coke arguing that Ecclesiastical Courts jurisdiction, was limited to cases of Church Administrative breaches, beyond, was to be left for Common law Judges, carefully trained, to interpret the law. In his brief for the case of Prohibition, reminded the King James I, in his own person, cannot adjudge any case, either criminal or civil, but ought to be determined, and adjudged in a Court of Justice, accorded to the law and custom of England. And the Monarch, was not subject to any individual, but to the laws of the land.
In the year 1613 at the age of 61years, Sir. Edward Coke, the Chief Justice for the Court of Common Pleas, dedicating all his efforts and services, in protecting the Rights of the people in England, was transferred to the Court of King’s Bench, in this instance, with the expectation of loyalty to the Monarch, than to the Common law, but the stance, of Sir. Edward Coke was an entrenched principle, and went ahead to remind King James the first, and I quote him ‘With all pleading cases before me, I shall do what be fit a Judge to do.’
Onwards, necessitated an unrest fume between Sir. Edward Coke and the Royal Court, until the demise of King James I, in the year 1625, and the successor, was his son, King Charles I of England. In his reign, were series of Monarchy repressions, through the raising of taxes without Parliament approval or sanctions, and imprisonment without trials, which the Judges of the Court of Common pleas, and the King’s Bench declared, the actions of the King, as illegal, as a result went ahead to dismiss his appointed Chief Justice Sir. Rannlph Crewe of the Court of Common Pleas. And proceeded, to use the Martial law, for the continual imprisonment against those who disregard the King’s order, for tax payment, thereby, relying on the soldiers of his realm, to intimidate the citizens.
Therein, the emergence of Sir. Edward Coke, in his famous declaration through a writs, and I quote, ‘In the house of an Englishman, is to him a Castle’. And went ahead in a spirit of the House of Commons, to respond to the actions of King Charles I, insisting the validity of the Magna carta, which expressly forbade the Imprisonment of freemen, without a trial, and in the clause 39 of the 1215 Charter of the Magna carta, subjecting the sovereign to the law. And went ahead to prepare the Resolutions, which led to the Habeas Corpus Act 1679, with a section of the Resolutions captured as follows;
‘No freeman, is to be remanded or detained in prison, or otherwise restrained by command of the King or Privy Council, or any other, unless some lawful cause be shown.’ And went ahead to argue,
‘the writ of habeas corpus cannot be denied, but should be granted to every man, who is remanded or detained in prison or otherwise restrained by the command of the King, the Privy Council or any other…Any freeman, so remanded or detained in prison, without cause being stated, should be entitled to bail or be freed.’
Sir. Edward Coke, reminded the King, Imprisonment in law, is a civil death, and a prison without a prefixed time, is a kind of hell.
King Charles the first, recalcitrant to the Resolutions from Sir. Edward Coke, through the House of Commons, resulted in the initiating of the ‘Petition of Right’ in a writ, for the Rights and Liberties of Royal Subjects, which became codified as Parliamentary privilege, with a section captured as follows, and I quote ‘the ultimate sovereign, lay with the common-law, not merely, was this superior to the civil or cannon law, but both the Parliament and the King, were subject to it authority’.
Furthermore, in reiteration to Sir. Edward Coke dissent, as then, the Chief Justice of the Court of Common pleas in England, during a declaration by the Court on Dr. Bonham’s case in the year 1610, Which, I quote, ‘When an Act of Parliament is against Common Right and Reason, or Repugnant, or impossible to be performed, the Common law will control it, and adjudge such Act to be void’.
And became a tradition uphold by the Court, and carefully expounded by Sir. William Blackstone, in pursuit of the law as a shield, to protect the Right and Freedom of the Englishmen, and I quote him ‘Parliament was a sovereign law-maker, preventing the Common law Courts from not only throwing aside her mandatory works, rather, to review the statutes in a fashion Edward Coke suggested.’
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Sir. Edward Coke Photo © Gilbert Jackson 1615, Guildhall Art Gallery, UK.
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Emmanuel Tweneboah Senzu, DBA, Ph.D., SJD.
Professor of Constitutional Law and Economic Criminology, fellow, University of Sierra Leone. Fulbright Research Fellow, J. Reuben Clark Law School, Brigham Young University, USA.
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