Habeas Corpus Act of the Restoration

Questions for Further Study

• 1.: Imagine that you and a friend are watching a movie or television program and that one of the characters, an attorney or judge, makes reference to “habeas corpus.” Explain to your friend just what that term means and why it is an important civil right.
• 2.: Compare this document with a much earlier document, the Constitutions of Clarendon (1164). How had concepts of judicial responsibility changed—or perhaps remained the same—between the twelfth and the seventeenth centuries?
• 3.: Define “common law.” If the concept of habeas corpus was ingrained in common law, why was a parliamentary act necessary?
• 4.: During the U.S. Civil War, President Abraham Lincoln suspended habeas corpus. So did President Woodrow Wilson during World War I. More recently, issues surrounding habeas corpus have arisen in connection with U.S. and British detention of suspected terrorists. Do you think these measures are ever justifiable? Explain.
• 5.: What political issues in England surrounding the restoration of the monarchy gave rise to the Habeas Corpus Act?