Joshua Tate Speaks on Magna Carta and the Charter of the Forests at LSU

Via Aaron Sheehan-Dean, Fred H. Frey Professor of  History, LSU:

The Modern History Colloquium presents a lecture by Professor Joshua Tate (SMU Law School) "Magna Carta and the Charter of the Forests" on Monday, February 13 at 12:00 PM, 236 Coates Hall, on the LSU Campus.

The year 2017 marks the 800th anniversary of the Charter of the Forest issued by King Henry III of England. The Charter of the Forest allowed Englishmen to use certain common lands wrongly claimed by King John and his predecessors. Although the rights granted were narrower than the various procedural rights in Magna Carta, they had relevance for all the king’s subjects, not just the barons and great lords. This lecture will use these two charters as a jumping-off point for a discussion of what rights ought to be considered fundamental and whether Magna Carta deserves its longstanding reputation as one of the most important documents in legal history.

Joshua Tate’s research and teaching focus on legal history, property, and trusts and estates. He has been a full-time faculty member at SMU Dedman School of Law since the fall of 2005. He is currently engaged in a study of the development of property rights and remedies in medieval England, focusing on issues of jurisdictional conflict with regard to rights of presentation to churches. Society for Legal History.