The correct answer is the principle of <em>Habeas Corpus</em>. Indeed, the Magna Carta charter declared that:
“No Freeman shall be taken or imprisoned, or be disseized of his Freehold, or Liberties, or free Customs, or be outlawed, or exiled, or any other wise destroyed; nor will We not pass upon him, nor condemn him, but by lawful judgment of his Peers, or by the Law of the land.”
And the United States Constitution very explicitly declares in its Article one, Suspension Clause number 2 that:
"The privilege of the writ of habeas corpus shall not be suspended, unless when in cases of rebellion or invasion the public safety may require it".
This was especially important since during the Revolutionary War, the British arrested lots of people arbitrarily and also abused them and denied them legal representation.
