Salvo et secure
The irreversible binomial “safe and secure” entered the English language from Latin via clause 42 of Magna Carta: Liceat unicuique decetero exire de regno nostro, et redire, salvo et secure[.]
(en: Let everyone be permitted to leave our kingdom, and return, safe and secure.)
John Plantagenet submitted to Magna Carta over 800 years ago, and ever since then the freedom of movement has been protected, in one manner or another, in the law of many countries whose legal systems descend from the English. International law enshrines it in Article 13.1 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights: Everyone has the right to leave any country, including his own, and to return to his country.
But I think something got lost along the way. The salvo et secure
clause was load-bearing, and its absence from the UDHR’s wording leaps out at me—especially these days, in the face of rampant ICE lawlessness and trans passport fuckery. I am less safe whenever I travel because the gender marker on my passport was forcibly changed. How is that consistent with salvo et secure
?
Quomodo “bullshit” Latine dicitur?