Download or read book Prosecuting Crime in the Renaissance written by John H. Langbein and published by The Lawbook Exchange, Ltd.. This book was released on 2005 with total page 336 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Our present system of criminal prosecution originated in England in the sixteenth century. Langbein traces its development, which was at its most intense during the reign of Queen Mary. He shows how the common law developed a system of official investigation and prosecution that incorporated the medieval institution of the jury trial. He places equal emphasis on the role of the justices of the peace as public prosecutors. The second half of the book compares the English system with those of the Holy Roman Empire (Germany) and France. He concludes by refuting the popular opinion that the English were strongly indebted to continental models. "This is an excellent work of scholarship, exhibiting wide research, erudition and analytical ability." --Joseph H. Smith, Harvard Law Review 88 (1974-1975) 485 JOHN LANGBEIN is Sterling Professor of Law and Legal History at Yale Law School. He has held academic positions at Stanford University, Oxford University, the Max-Planck-Institut für Europäische Rechtsgeschichte and the Max-Planck-Institut für Ausländisches und Internationales Strafrecht. Langbein is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the International Academy of Comparative Law, the International Association of Procedure Law, and other organizations in the fields of legal history and comparative law. Some of his most distinguished publications and articles include History of the Common Law: The Development of Anglo-American Legal Institutions (2009), Torture and the Law of Proof: Europe and England in the Ancient Regime (1977), and "The Supreme Court Flunks Trusts," Supreme Court Review (1991).

Download or read book Martial Law and English Laws c 1500 c 1700 written by John M. Collins and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2016-05-19 with total page 335 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: John M. Collins presents the first comprehensive history of martial law in the early modern period. He argues that rather than being a state of exception from law, martial law was understood and practiced as one of the King's laws. Further, it was a vital component of both England's domestic and imperial legal order. It was used to quell rebellions during the Reformation, to subdue Ireland, to regulate English plantations like Jamestown, to punish spies and traitors in the English Civil War, and to build forts on Jamaica. Through outlining the history of martial law, Collins reinterprets English legal culture as dynamic, politicized, and creative, where jurists were inspired by past practices to generate new law rather than being restrained by it. This work asks that legal history once again be re-integrated into the cultural and political histories of early modern England and its empire.

Download or read book The Oxford Handbook of European Legal History written by Heikki Pihlajamäki and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2018-06-28 with total page 1217 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: European law, including both civil law and common law, has gone through several major phases of expansion in the world. European legal history thus also is a history of legal transplants and cultural borrowings, which national legal histories as products of nineteenth-century historicism have until recently largely left unconsidered. The Handbook of European Legal History supplies its readers with an overview of the different phases of European legal history in the light of today's state-of-the-art research, by offering cutting-edge views on research questions currently emerging in international discussions. The Handbook takes a broad approach to its subject matter both nationally and systemically. Unlike traditional European legal histories, which tend to concentrate on "heartlands" of Europe (notably Italy and Germany), the Europe of the Handbook is more versatile and nuanced, taking into consideration the legal developments in Europe's geographical "fringes" such as Scandinavia and Eastern Europe. The Handbook covers all major time periods, from the ancient Greek law to the twenty-first century. Contributors include acknowledged leaders in the field as well as rising talents, representing a wide range of legal systems, methodologies, areas of expertise and research agendas.

Download or read book Involuntary Confessions of the Flesh in Early Modern France written by Nora Martin Peterson and published by Rowman & Littlefield. This book was released on 2016-09-14 with total page 187 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Involuntary Confessions of the Flesh in Early Modern France is an interdisciplinary study of moments in which the early modern body loses control of its surface. Rather than read these moments as forerunners to the Freudian slip, it suggests that these moments are vital players in shaping various early modern discourses. This book pairs literary texts with religious, legal, and courtly documents in order to highlight the urgency and messiness of the relationships between body, self, and text.

Download or read book Jacks Knaves and Vagabonds written by Gregory J Durston and published by Waterside Press. This book was released on 2020-09-02 with total page 739 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this welcome addition to his Crime History Series, Gregory Durston points to the lack of design and short-term expediency that typified Tudor law and order. But he also detects an emergent criminal justice system amidst royal patronage, protection, and the influence of wealthy magnates. Students of English history will have heard how benefit of clergy and the ‘neck verse’ might avoid a hanging, but what of other stratagems such as down-valuing stolen goods, cruentation, chance medley, pious perjury or John at Death (a non-existent culprit blamed by the accused and treated by juries as real); all devices used to mitigate the all-pervading death-for-felony rule. Together with other artifices deployed by courts to circumvent black-letter law the author also describes how poor, marginalised and illiterate citizens were those most likely to suffer unfairness, injustice and draconian punishment. He also describes the political intrigue and widescale corruption that were symptomatic of the era, alongside such diverse aspects as forfeiture of property, evidential ploys, the rise of the highwayman, religious persecution, witchcraft and infanticide crazes. At a time of shifting allegiances?—?and as Crown, church, judges, magistrates and officials wrestled over jurisdiction, central or local control, ‘ungodly customs’, laws of convenience or malleable definitions?—?never perhaps were facts or law so expertly engineered to justify or defend often curious outcomes. Part of Durston’s Crime History Series. Covers the entire Tudor era. Based on first-hand historical research. Fully referenced to hundreds of sources.

Download or read book Identity Crime and Legal Responsibility in Eighteenth Century England written by D. Rabin and published by Springer. This book was released on 2004-10-20 with total page 245 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: During the eighteenth century English defendants, victims, witnesses, judges, and jurors spoke a language of the mind. With their reputations or lives at stake, men and women presented their complex emotions and passions as grounds for acquittal or mitigation of punishment. Inside the courtroom the language of excuse reshaped crimes and punishments, signalling a shift in the age-old negotiation of mitigation. Outside the courtroom the language of the mind reflected society's preoccupation with questions of sensibility, responsibility, and the self.

Download or read book Death in the Tiergarten written by Benjamin Carter Hett and published by Harvard University Press. This book was released on 2009-07-01 with total page 304 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From Alexanderplatz, the bustling Berlin square ringed by bleak slums, to Moabit, site of the city's most feared prison, Death in the Tiergarten illuminates the culture of criminal justice in late imperial Germany. In vivid prose, Benjamin Hett examines daily movement through the Berlin criminal courts and the lawyers, judges, jurors, thieves, pimps, and murderers who inhabited this world. Drawing on previously untapped sources, including court records, pamphlet literature, and pulp novels, Hett examines how the law reflected the broader urban culture and politics of a rapidly changing city. In this book, German criminal law looks very different from conventional narratives of a rigid, static system with authoritarian continuities traceable from Bismarck to Hitler. From the murder trial of Anna and Hermann Heinze in 1891 to the surprising treatment of the notorious Captain of Koepenick in 1906, Hett illuminates a transformation in the criminal justice system that unleashed a culture war fought over issues of permissiveness versus discipline, the boundaries of public discussion of crime and sexuality, and the role of gender in the courts. Trained in both the law and history, Hett offers a uniquely valuable perspective on the dynamic intersections of law and society, and presents an impressive new view of early twentieth-century German history.

Download or read book Imprisonment in England and Wales written by Christopher Harding and published by Taylor & Francis. This book was released on 2023-10-25 with total page 267 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Originally published in 1985, Imprisonment in England and Wales is an account of the changing functions and conditions of imprisonment in England and Wales from the Medieval period to the present day. It is designed both as a text for students and teachers of history, law and social science and as an introduction to the subject for more general readers and is one of the few attempts to provide an overall view of the institution of imprisonment in this country over a period of several centuries. The authors have made use of original sources and other research to provide an accessible account of the subject, combining essential factual detail with an analysis of the use of imprisonment. It is therefore particularly of interest to those approaching the subject for the first time and is also intended to provide guidance for further research into particular areas of the subject. The authors draw upon their respective knowledge of four main periods to show how imprisonment has performed a number of different functions: the punishment and reform of convicted offenders, the coercion of debtors, the custody of persons awaiting trial and more generally the containment of society’s undesirables. At the same time, the institution of imprisonment is put into the context of wider social, political and economic forces, and related to the development of an increasingly centralised and incursive system of criminal law, as well as to the use and disuse of other forms of punishment and legal control. This discussion is supported by an account of the characteristics of prisons, the problems of administration and the implementation of penal and reformative policy.

Download or read book A History of Infanticide in Britain c 1600 to the Present written by A. Kilday and published by Springer. This book was released on 2013-06-14 with total page 389 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The killing of new-born children is an intensely emotional and emotive subject. The hidden nature of this crime has made it an area incredibly difficult subject area for historians to approach up until now. This work provides the first detailed history of infanticide in mainland Britain from 1600 to the modern era.

Download or read book Encyclopedia of Witchcraft 4 volumes written by Richard M. Golden Director, Jewish Studies Program and published by Bloomsbury Publishing USA. This book was released on 2006-01-30 with total page 1310 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The definitive compilation on witchcraft and witch hunting in the early modern era exploring significant people, places, beliefs, and events. Encyclopedia of Witchcraft: The Western Tradition is the definitive reference on the age of witch hunting (approximately 1430–1750), its origins, expansion, and ultimate decline. Incorporating a wealth of recent scholarship in four richly illustrated, alphabetically organized volumes, it offers historians and general readers alike the opportunity to explore the realities behind the legends of witchcraft and witchcraft trials. Over 170 contributors from 28 nations provide vivid, documented descriptions and analyses of witchcraft trials and locations, folklore and beliefs, magical practices and deities, influential texts, and the full range of players in this extraordinary drama—witchcraft theorists and theologians; historians and authors; judges, clergy, and rulers; the accused; and their persecutors. Concentrating on Europe and the Americas in the early modern era, the work also covers relevant topics from the ancient Near East (including the Hebrew and Christian Bibles), classical antiquity, and the European Middle Ages.

Download or read book Dangerous Familiars written by Frances E. Dolan and published by Cornell University Press. This book was released on 1994 with total page 274 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Looking back at images of violence in the popular culture of early modern England, we find that the specter of the murderer loomed most vividly not in the stranger, but in the familiar. A gripping exploration of seventeenth-century accounts of domestic murder in fact and fiction, this book is the first to ask why.

Download or read book The Trial of Jeanne Catherine written by Sara Beam and published by University of Toronto Press. This book was released on 2021-02-01 with total page 167 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In 1686 in Geneva, a single mother named Jeanne Catherine Thomasset is charged with poisoning two young children: her own illegitimate daughter and the son of a rural wet nurse. So begins a harrowing criminal trial during which authorities interrogate Jeanne Catherine several times, sometimes with torture, to determine the truth. The Trial of Jeanne Catherine is a suspenseful historical mystery that offers students the opportunity to learn about motherhood, child rearing, gender, religion, local politics, and the practice of criminal justice in early modern Europe. This edition provides the complete trial transcript as well as the deliberations of the Genevan authorities and relevant correspondence.

Download or read book Fictions of Knowledge written by Y. Batsaki and published by Springer. This book was released on 2011-11-15 with total page 255 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Locating literature at the intersection of distinct areas of thinking on the nature, scope and methods of knowledge - philosophy, theology, science, and the law - this book engages with literary texts across periods and genres to address questions of probability, problems of evidence, the uses of experiment and the poetics and ethics of doubt.

Download or read book A World View of Criminal Justice written by Richard Vogler and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2017-03-02 with total page 347 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Criminal justice procedure is the bedrock of human rights. Surprisingly, however, in an era of unprecedented change in criminal justice around the world, it is often dismissed as technical and unimportant. This failure to take procedure seriously has a terrible cost, allowing reform to be driven by purely pragmatic considerations, cost-cutting or foreign influence. Current US political domination, for example, has produced a historic and global shift towards more adversarial procedure, which is widely misunderstood and inconsistently implemented. This book addresses such issues by bringing together a huge range of historical and contemporary research on criminal justice in Europe, Asia, Africa, Australasia and the Americas. It proposes a theory of procedure derived from the three great international trial modes of 'inquisitorial justice', 'adversarial justice' and 'popular justice'. This approach opens up the possibility of assessing criminal justice from a more objective standpoint, as well as providing a sourcebook for comparative study and practical reform around the world.

Download or read book Communal Justice in Shakespeare s England written by Penelope Geng and published by University of Toronto Press. This book was released on 2021 with total page 276 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Providing a fresh examination of the relationship between literary and legal communities, Communal Justice in Shakespeare's England examines the literature of the communal justice in early modern England.

Download or read book Interrogation and Confession written by Ian Bryan and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2019-01-04 with total page 314 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: First published in 1997, Interrogation and Confession has two important concerns. The first is with the structures and strategies that have evolved within the criminal justice system not only to entrench the confession as key item of prosecution evidence but also to legitimate the custodial interrogation of suspects by law enforcement personnel. The second major concern is with kinds of police-suspect encounter that appear in official accounts of custodial interrogation. Based upon a systematic analysis of prosecution papers associated with over 650 Crown Court cases, the author provides vivid and challenging insights into the nature of police-suspect relations and closely examines: the extent to which evidence is constructed (rather than elicited); how far formal rules impact upon the character and form of police-suspect relations during interrogation; the circumstances in which suspects elect or decline to cooperate with the police; and the extent to which records of custodial interrogation can be said to be complete, accurate and reliable.

Download or read book The Oxford History of the Laws of England Volume VI written by John Baker and published by OUP Oxford. This book was released on 2003-09-18 with total page 1115 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This volume covers the years 1483-1558, a period of immense social, political, and intellectual changes, which profoundly affected the law and its workings. It first considers constitutional developments, and addresses the question of whether there was a rule of law under king Henry VIII. In a period of supposed despotism, and enhanced parliamentary power, protection of liberty was increasing and habeas corpus was emerging. The volume considers the extent to which the law was affected by the intellectual changes of the Renaissance, and how far the English experience differed from that of the Continent. It includes a study of the myriad jurisdictions in Tudor England and their workings; and examines important procedural changes in the central courts, which represent a revolution in the way that cases were presented and decided. The legal profession, its education, its functions, and its literature are examined, and the impact of printing upon legal learning and the role of case-law in comparison with law-school doctrine are addressed. The volume then considers the law itself. Criminal law was becoming more focused during this period as a result of doctrinal exposition in the inns of court and occasional reports of trials. After major conflicts with the Church, major adjustments were made to the benefit of clergy, and the privilege of sanctuary was all but abolished. The volume examines the law of persons in detail, addressing the impact of the abolition of monastic status, the virtual disappearance of villeinage, developments in the law of corporations, and some remarkable statements about the equality of women. The history of private law during this period is dominated by real property and particularly the Statutes of Uses and Wills (designed to protect the king's feudal income against the consequences of trusts) which are given a new interpretation. Leaseholders and copyholders came to be treated as full landowners with rights assimilated to those of freeholders. The land law of the time was highly sophisticated, and becoming more so, but it was only during this period that the beginnings of a law of chattels became discernible. There were also significant changes in the law of contract and tort, not least in the development of a satisfactory remedy for recovering debts.