Southwestern University will mark the 800th anniversary of the Magna Carta, signed by English King John in 1215, with a public lecture on Wednesday, Sept. 16, 2015 at 4:30 p.m. in Mood-Bridwell Hall on the Southwestern campus.

The Magna Carta is viewed by many as the foundation of liberties enshrined in the U.S. Bill of Rights and related documents.

The lecture features Joshua Tate, professor at SMU School of Law, and will focus on the ways in which the Magna Carta influenced the tradition of trial by jury, as well as the reasons why the U.S. continues to favor juries even in civil (non-criminal) trials.

Tate is a Medieval historian and professor of law with both a J.D. and Ph.D. from Yale University. He has been a full-time faculty member at SMU Dedman School of Law since 2005 and is currently engaged in a study of the development of property rights and remedies in medieval England, focusing on issues of jurisdictional conflict with regard to rights of presentation to churches.

Thomas McClendon, Southwestern University professor of history and event organizer, says that this lecture is “a great opportunity to mark this important anniversary and learn from a historian and legal scholar about the importance of Magna Carta in the English-speaking political and legal traditions.”