Note 816 — MAGNA CARTA. (continued 5)

Pollock and Maitland, I. 152, n., read the word as having both meanings in this passage. Cf. Gneist, Engl. Const., chapter xviii. Mr. Pike, House of Lords, 170, takes an opposite view: “King John bound himself in such a manner as to show that judgment of peers was one thing, the law of the land another. The judgment of peers was ... a very simple matter and well understood at the time. The law of the land included all legal proceedings, civil or criminal, other than the judgment of peers.” The present writer rejects this antithesis, because the two things may be, and indeed must be, combined. The “trial” by a law and the “judgment” by equals were complementary of each other. The peers appointed the test and decided whether it had been properly fulfilled.