By: Tobias Prossliner
The Magna Carta is a charter agreed by King John of England at Runnymede, near Windsor, on 15 June 1215. It is on of the most famous documents in the world.
Citizenship is a concept where a citizen is an individual who is fully recognized by a state as being member of that state. Citizenship grants to every individuals who has some sort of legal status within a state, certain rights, and they are expected to perform certain duties.
The balances between these rights and duties varies from state to state and from time to time. For example, during the Second World War many citizen were obligated to fight for their nation.
The exact balance between rights, liberties and duties will always change. Citizenship implies that everybody has access to the same rights and is proteceted by the same laws. They have the right to vote (over 18 years), the right to free education from 5 to 16 years and the right to say what they want (freedom of speech) so long as they don’t break the laws of libel or slander.
They key acts for the British Citizenship are the Magna Carta and the Bill of Rights. The Magna Carta influenced very much the British Citizen.
Raetia on Magna Carta 