Why would chief executive transcend above legislature when kings of centuries past submitted to the rule of law as old as Magna Carta?
Paul Harris compares Zhang Xiaoming's comments on the transcendent position of the chief executive with statements by English kings in centuries past claiming to be above the law
In addition, Article 8 of the Basic Law provides that the common law, as previously in force in Hong Kong, continues to apply, and it is a fundamental principle of the common law that everyone, including the head of government, is equal before the law.
The struggle to prevent the king placing himself above the law was only resolved with England's Bill of Rights in 1688
Zhang's provocative remarks carry strange echoes of statements by English kings in past centuries that the king was above the law and the courts. This year is the 800th anniversary of King John's reluctant signature of Magna Carta. In the years after Magna Carta, the principle which it enshrined, that everyone is equal before the law, became generally accepted as the common law of England, and was put into a famous maxim by 14th-century scholar Henry Bracton: "The king is below no man, but below God and the law."
This principle, universally accepted in England, did not reach Scotland until 1603, when James VI of Scotland became James I of England. When the chief justice, Sir Edward Coke, explained it to the king, "His Majesty fell into that high indignation as the like was never known in him, looking and speaking fiercely with bended fist, offering to strike him, etc."
Sir Edward fell to all fours and humbly beseeched the king "to take compassion on him and to pardon him if he thought zeale had gone beyond his duty and allegiance. His Majesty, not herewith contented, continued his indignation".
