What Did the Framers Intend?
A. Sir Edward Coke and Magna Carta It is widely agreed that Chapter 40 of Magna Carta was originally intended to restore the integrity of the courts by, among other things, halting the sale of writs.8 Chapter 40, and other portions of Magna Carta, represented efforts to restrain King John’s interference with the judiciary in the early 13th century.9 Magna Carta regained prominence in the 17th century through the work of Sir Edward Coke.10 Unfortunately, and as commentators have noted, there is not a well-developed body of research concerning Coke’s reinterpretation of Chapter 40. Nonetheless, it is generally accepted that the open courts clauses in Massachusetts and in the other 38 states that have adopted such clauses were derived from Coke’s restatement of Magna Carta, Chapter 40.11 Although it has been often assumed that Coke’s reformulation of Chapter 40 was driven by a concern to establish a “right to remedy” provision, some commentators have recently suggested that Coke’s work on
