Allyson May chronicles the history of the English criminal trial and the development of a criminal bar in London between 1750 and 1850. She charts the transformation of the legal process and the evolution of professional standards of conduct for the crimi

Allyson May chronicles the history of the English criminal trial and the development of a criminal bar in London between 1750 and 1850. She charts the transformation of the legal process and the evolution of professional standards of conduct for the criminal bar through an examination of the working lives of the Old Bailey barristers of the period. In describing the rise of adversarialism, May uncovers the motivations and interests of prosecutors, defendants, the bench, and the state, as well as the often-maligned "Old Bailey hacks" themselves. Traditionally, the English criminal trial consisted of a relatively unstructured altercation between the victim-prosecutor and the accused, who generally appeared without a lawyer. A criminal bar had emerged in London by the 1780s, and in 1836 the Prisoners' Counsel Act recognized the defendant's right to legal counsel in felony trials and lifted many restrictions on the activities of defense lawyers. May explores the role of barristers before and after the Prisoners' Counsel Act. She also details the careers of individual members of the bar--describing their civil practice in local, customary courts as well as their criminal practice--and the promotion of Old Bailey counsel to the bench of that court. A comprehensive biographical appendix augments this discussion.

In Regency England a profligate son was regarded as every parent's worst nightmare: he symbolized the dangerous temptations of a new consumer society and the failure of parents to instil moral, sexual, and financial self-control in their sons. This book tells the dramatic and moving story of one of those 'profligate sons': William Jackson, a charming teenage boy, whose embattled relationship with his father and frustrated attempts to keep up with his wealthy friends, resulted in personal and family tragedy. From popular public school boy to the pursuit of prostitutes, from duelling to debtors' prison and finally, from fraudster to convicted felon awaiting transportation to Australia, William's father (a wealthy East India Company merchant) chronicled every step of his son's descent into depravity and crime. This remarkable source provides a unique and compelling insight into the relationship between a father and son at a time when the gap between different generations yawned particularly wide. Diving beneath the polished elegance of Britain in Byron's 'age of surfaces', the tragic tale of William Jackson reveals the murky underworld of debt, disease, crime, pornography, and prostitution that lay so close beneath the veneer of 'polite society'. In a last flowering of exuberant eighteenth-century hedonism before the dawning of Victorian respectability, young William became disastrously familiar with them all. The Profligate Son combines a gripping tale with cutting-edge historical research into early nineteenth-century family conflict, attitudes towards sexuality, credit, and debt, and the brutal criminal justice system in Britain and Australia at the time. It also offers challenging analogies to modern concerns by revealing what Georgians believed to be the best way to raise young men, what they considered to be the relative responsibilities of parents and children, and how they dealt with the problems of debt during the first age of mass consumer credit.

A new and controversial perspective on the causes, personalities and consequences of the most devastating urban riots in British history.

Adversary trial emerged in England in the 18th century. Its origins and significance had tended to go unrecognized by judges, lawyers, jurists, and researchers until relatively modern times. Even now, there is considerable dispute as to how and why adversary trial came into existence, and little connection has been made with the fact that its existence contributed to the genesis of a the modern doctrine of human rights, whereby citizens are able to make a stand against the power of the state or vested interest. Fighting for Justice focuses on the birth and meaning of adversary trial, including the key role of Sir William Garrow. The book assesses how deep-rooted is the notion of opposing parties in the common law and the English psyche generally, and that of countries such as the US that have followed the same pattern whereby legal representatives champion the cause of individuals. The book touches on moves through restorative justice around the world, to alter adversarial systems in favor of a less conflict based approach. Because justice and the rule of law are frequently nowadays under attack, Fighting for Justice will be a valuable aid to understanding the contributions that have been made to the overall development of criminal justice and common law systems.

This edited volume examines the performance and role of scientific experts in modern European courts of law and police investigations. It discusses cases from criminal, civil and international law to parse the impact of forensic evidence and expertise in different European countries. The contributors show how modern forensic science and technology are inextricably entangled with political ideology, gender norms and changes in the law and legal systems. Discussing fascinating case studies, they highlight how the ideology of authoritarian and liberal regimes has affected the practical enactment of forensic expertise. They also emphasise the influence of images of masculinity and femininity on the performance of experts and on their assessment of evidence, victims and perpetrators. This book is an important contribution to our knowledge of modern European forensic practices.

Contemporary studies have concluded that women are far less likely to kill than men and that when women do kill, they do so within the family. Debauched, Desperate, Deranged: Women Who Killed, London 1674-1913 examines the evolution of this pattern in the over 1400 trials in which women were prosecuted for homicide in London from the late seventeenth century until just before the First World War. Which deaths were considered homicides and in what circumstances women were culpable illustrates profound changes in the prevailing assumptions about women. The outcomes of trials and the portrayals of these women in the press illuminate changes in perceptions of women's status and their physical and mental limitations. Debauched, Desperate, Deranged breaks new ground in existing studies of gender and homicide, using a long time frame to discern which trends are brief anomalies and which represent significant change or continuity. Debauched, Desperate, Deranged is the first empirical, quantitatively as well as qualitatively based study of women and homicide from the seventeenth century to the twentieth. It presents new and significant conclusions on changing incidence of maternal homicides and the remarkable constancy of spousal homicides.