Image courtesy of the Library of Congress.

The British and American legal systems were not the only ones to draw from Magna Carta. Seen here is a charter signed and granted by Empress Catherine II in 1785, which the Library of Congress refers to as a Russian Magna Carta. “The charter concluded the legal consolidation of Russian nobility as a class and provided for its political and corporate rights, privileges, and principles of self-organization. Initially intended to apply only to nobility, the charter contained ideas of liberty, which were later interpreted to extend to others.”