Fair Trials in Law

The Leveller John Lilburne spent repeated spells accused of sedition or treason between 1638 and 1653. He was both a lay lawyer and a cause lawyer, pursuing the full range of what he insisted were the procedural rights of anyone on trial on criminal charges. Though he sometimes pointed to the law of England to make these claims, he was more insistent and consistent in basing these rights on the laws of God, nature, and reason. In this way, he moved from national to natural modes of rights claiming—he argued for human rights. This essay draws on the scores of publications where he made these claims. He never convinced his judges to accept them. But he convinced his jurors and people in the streets. Centuries would pass before the procedural rights he promoted were accepted as law. These rights would be even more fully embraced around the globe in the major human rights declarations of the twentieth century.