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More than 5000 entries on the history, culture and life of Britain (published in 1993 by Macmillan, now out of print)
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habeas corpus
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The first two words of an ancient Latin writ in English common law, telling the person in receipt of the writ that 'you should have the body' brought before a court of law. The writ is issued to the custodian in charge of the 'body' (a living person), and the best known of its many applications is when a court wishes to decide whether the imprisonment of the person is lawful. Since *Magna Carta decreed that no free man should be seized without due process of law, it has been widely assumed to have introduced habeas corpus. In fact it was not till the reign of Henry VII that the writ acquired this main purpose, of freeing people unjustly imprisoned by the *Privy Council.
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The assertion of habeas corpus as a right of the citizen against royal power was an important part of parliament's struggle against the supposed *divine right of kings claimed by the Stuarts. The *Petition of Right (1628) was followed by the Habeas Corpus Act of 1679, which laid down strict rules to make the writ fully effective.
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