Keith Smith
- Published in print:
- 2010
- Published Online:
- May 2010
- ISBN:
- 9780199239757
- eISBN:
- 9780191705151
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199239757.003.0003
- Subject:
- Law, Legal History
This chapter shows that throughout the 19th century, significant changes occurred in the roles and personnel of law enforcement, along with a drip feed of ameliorative state measures. Such ...
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This chapter shows that throughout the 19th century, significant changes occurred in the roles and personnel of law enforcement, along with a drip feed of ameliorative state measures. Such developments took place against a background of several decades of the steady push of reformers, successfully resisted by defenders of the status quo. Aside from a victim's personal inclination and means, the likelihood of prosecution turned substantially on the attitudes and practices of local magistrates and constabulary. The period also saw fundamental changes in criminal trials on indictment, both in respect of the roles of the dramatis personae and the rules which regulated them. This was true of the judge, prosecution, and most especially the defendant. It was a process of change, in large measure wrought by the relatively small but slowly swelling ranks of lawyers participating in trials from the early 18th century, initially almost exclusively acting for the prosecution.Less
This chapter shows that throughout the 19th century, significant changes occurred in the roles and personnel of law enforcement, along with a drip feed of ameliorative state measures. Such developments took place against a background of several decades of the steady push of reformers, successfully resisted by defenders of the status quo. Aside from a victim's personal inclination and means, the likelihood of prosecution turned substantially on the attitudes and practices of local magistrates and constabulary. The period also saw fundamental changes in criminal trials on indictment, both in respect of the roles of the dramatis personae and the rules which regulated them. This was true of the judge, prosecution, and most especially the defendant. It was a process of change, in large measure wrought by the relatively small but slowly swelling ranks of lawyers participating in trials from the early 18th century, initially almost exclusively acting for the prosecution.
Joseph Jaconelli
- Published in print:
- 2002
- Published Online:
- March 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780198252580
- eISBN:
- 9780191681387
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198252580.003.0007
- Subject:
- Law, Criminal Law and Criminology
At the culmination of the criminal trial on indictment lies the collective decision of the jury, and, in the case of many summary trials, the collective decision of the lay magistrates. In civil ...
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At the culmination of the criminal trial on indictment lies the collective decision of the jury, and, in the case of many summary trials, the collective decision of the lay magistrates. In civil cases that are taken to appellate level there is the collegiate judgment of the court on the outcome of the appeal. The process of arriving at such decisions poses special problems in the context of open justice which are discussed in this chapter. In principle, all three areas that have just been mentioned — the jury, the lay magistracy, and the appellate judiciary — could give rise to issues of the same kind. However, it is the collegiate decision-taking of the jury that has generated the most discussion together with a certain amount of litigation. Accordingly, it is the jury which provides the main focus of this chapter, occasional reference being made to analogous issues in the other decision-taking contexts.Less
At the culmination of the criminal trial on indictment lies the collective decision of the jury, and, in the case of many summary trials, the collective decision of the lay magistrates. In civil cases that are taken to appellate level there is the collegiate judgment of the court on the outcome of the appeal. The process of arriving at such decisions poses special problems in the context of open justice which are discussed in this chapter. In principle, all three areas that have just been mentioned — the jury, the lay magistracy, and the appellate judiciary — could give rise to issues of the same kind. However, it is the collegiate decision-taking of the jury that has generated the most discussion together with a certain amount of litigation. Accordingly, it is the jury which provides the main focus of this chapter, occasional reference being made to analogous issues in the other decision-taking contexts.
