Hacker News new | ask | show | jobs
by pdpi 40 days ago
> Partly because it was founded (in part) by oppressed minorities fleeing states where the were constantly harassed by authorities

Nah, it's a principle that was brought in from English common law. E.g Blackstone's Ratio[0] was published at roughly the same time as the American revolution was playing out, and cited plenty of earlier formulations of the same principle. Habeas Corpus was codified in the Magna Carta, but predated it as a concept.

0. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blackstone%27s_ratio

1 comments

This was on the tail of sectarian conflicts (e.g. Cromwell) in the UK, and people fleeing them to the US.

You're right than I'm oversimplifying it, and being very US centric.

Now I'm entertaining myself by reframing the rebel barons (magna carta) as an oppressed minority, fleeing into their castles where they get harassed by siege engines.