The Origins of Public Prosecution at Common Law

Datos Bibliográficos

ID8301899
AutoresJohn H Langbein (Chicago Kent College of Law, autor de correspondencia)
Año1973
Volumen17
Número4
Páginas313
Fecha de publicación1973-10-01
Peer ReviewedSí
Open AccessNo
TipoARTICLE
RevistaAmerican Journal of Legal History (JOURNAL)
Identificadores de la revistaISSN: 0002-9319 • E-ISSN: 2161-797X
EditorialOxford University Press (OUP) (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.2307/845098
OpenAlexW1602183128
IdiomaEN
Citas recibidas9

However fundamental he may appear to us, the public prosecutor was an historical latecomer. Judge and jury we can trace back to the high Middle Ages. But the prosecutor became a regular figure of Anglo-American criminal procedure only in Tudor times. Further, his appearance then has not been noticed in our historical literature, an especially remarkable omission when we discover that the prosecutorial office was originally lodged with a much-studied institution, the English magistracy. Ever since Maitland coined his famous phrase, that under the Tudors and Stuarts the justices of the peace became the "rulers of the county," they have attracted a substantial scholarship. Nevertheless, this major aspect of the work of the magistracy has remained unknown. The present article documents and accounts for the development by which the justices of the peace became the ordinary public prosecutors in cases of serious crime

Common law · Legal history · Political science · Sociology · Criminal Law and Evidence · Judicial and Constitutional Studies · Law · Legal principles and applications