Repaired Magna Carta unveiled at U.S. Archives

A 715-year old copy of Magna Carta will soon return to public view at the National Archives after a conservation effort removed old patches and repaired weak spots in the English declaration of human rights that inspired the United States's founding documents.

The National Archives unveiled the medieval document yesterday in a specially humidified glass and metal case. It is the only original Magna Carta in the United States and will return to public display Feb. 17.

A $13.5 million gift from philanthropist David Rubenstein funded the conservation, the custom-built case and a new gallery being renovated to host Magna Carta. Rubenstein bought the historic document at auction in 2007 for $21.3 million and sent it to the National Archives on a long-term loan.

Rubenstein, a co-founder of the private equity firm The Carlyle Group, said he sought the document previously owned by Texas billionaire H. Ross Perot because he wanted to keep it from leaving the country.

As a history buff, Rubenstein has become an expert on Magna Carta's legacy dating to 1215. That's when noblemen came together to declare their rights to King John, including the first limits on arbitrary taxation that led to the principle of "no taxation without representation" and the right to a trial by jury.

"This became something that set the trend for common law" in Britain and later in the United States as founding fathers referred back to Magna Carta, Rubenstein said. "If you read the early writings of Hamilton and Jefferson and Adams and Madison, many times they say it's because of the Magna Carta that we're doing this."

There are 17 surviving copies of Magna Carta. Fifteen are in Britain, and one is displayed at Australia's parliament.

The U.S. copy was one of four reissued in the year 1297. It still carries the wax seal of King Edward I of England, which is attached by a ribbon under the document. The 1297 document became the law of the land in England.

It's central to the founding of the United States because the colonists argued they were entitled to the rights under Magna Carta as Englishmen, Rubenstein said. But King George disagreed, so the colonists chose to break away.

Magna Carta was far ahead of its time in opening the door to principles for government based on law and the role of the people, said American University law professor Stephen Vladeck.

"It's really the first example, at least in Western history, of a monarch agreeing to abide by legal rules written by others," Vladeck said.