JOURNAL: The Journal of Legal History XLIV (2023), No. 1

 

Crime, Criminal Policy, and Law Reform in Seventeenth-Century Irish Parliaments (Coleman A. Dennehy) (OPEN ACCESS)
DOI 10.1080/01440365.2023.2184538
Abstract:

This article examines the development of criminal law, policy, and also the legislation of the Irish Parliament in the seventeenth century. In particular it questions how important matters pertaining to crime were to Members of Parliament and members of the government, and whether this had any material effect on the development of the corpus of criminal law in early modern Ireland. It also questions what role criminal law might have played in the colonizing process, whether in practice or in theory, as such asking to what extent criminal law and the notion of crime in society might or might not have been weaponized in a crusading, civilizing mission in Ireland.

Creating the Citizen Juror in Interwar England and Wales (Kay Crosby) (OPEN ACCESS)
DOI 10.1080/01440365.2023.2184540
Abstract:

This article assesses developments in the theory and practice of jury service in England and Wales between the two world wars. It argues that this was a transformative period in the English jury’s history, in which both public and administrative understandings of the system shifted away from a model predicated primarily on the possession of landed property of a certain value, and towards a model built around developing notions of citizenship. This was more generally a period in which understandings of citizenship, as distinct from mere subjecthood, were also developing. The article argues that developments in citizenship generally, and in the practicalities of jury service more specifically, are intimately connected. By analysing the interwar jury as a citizenship institution, we deepen our understanding both of citizenship practices and of the jury during this important period in the shift towards something approaching democratic forms of governance.

Woolmington in Context: The Excavation of a Case (Richard Glover) (OPEN ACCESS)
DOI 10.1080/01440365.2023.2184542
Abstract:

The 1935 judgment in Woolmington v Director of Public Prosecutions established the ‘golden thread’ principle that, in general, the prosecution bears the burden of proof in criminal trials. This is the ‘cardinal principle of the criminal law’, not just in England and Wales, but right across the common law world. It is a principle that is now largely taken for granted, but when Woolmington was decided, it represented a sharp and largely unexpected break with past authority. Drawing on a ‘legal archaeology’ methodology, this paper steps outside the limited and, in some respects, misleading facts contained in the official law reports and considers Woolmington in its broader socio-economic and political context, and with particular reference to important gender issues that arise. It seeks, thereby, to improve our understanding of this revolutionary judgment and how it came to be made at this juncture.

Scottish Legal History Group Report 2022 (Andrew Simpson)

Migrations of Manuscripts 2022 (John Baker)

Book reviews:

• Authorities in Early Modern Law Courts, Edinburgh Studies in Law Volume 16 by Guido Rossi, Edinburgh, Edinburgh University Press, 2021, xi + 299 pp., (including index), £90 (hardback, also available Open Access from the publisher), ISBN: 9781474451000 (Mark Godfrey)
• A History of Divorce Law: Reform in England from the Victorian to Interwar Years by Henry Kha, Abingdon, Routledge, 2021, v + 192pp. (including index), £120.00 (hardback), ISBN: 9780367420062 (Penelope Russell)

Read all articles here.