Table of Contents

Introduction
1: The Lawyer-Free Criminal Trial
The Altercation
The Rapidity of Trial
The Rule Against Defence Counsel
The Marian Pretrial
The 'Accused Speaks' Trial
The Plight of the Accused
2: The Treason Trials Act of 1696: The Advent of Defense Counsel
The Treason Trials of the Later Stuarts
The Critque of the Trials
The Provisions of the Act
The Restriction to Treason
Of Aristocrats and Paupers: Treason's Legacy for Adversary Criminal Justice
3: The Prosecutorial Origins of Defence Counsel
Prosecution Lawyers
Prosecution Perjury
Making Forgery Felony
Evening Up: Defense Counsel Enters the Felony Trial
4: The Law of Criminal Evidence
The View From the Sessions Papers
The Character Rule
The Corroboraion Rule
The Confession Rule
Unfinished Business: The Hearsay Rule
Groping for the Lever: Excluding Evidence
5: From Altercation to Adversary Trial
Latency
Silencing the Accused
Prosecution Counsel
Defense Counsel
Judicial Acquiescence
Jury Trial
The Truth Deficit

About the Author

John Langbein is Sterling Professor of Law and Legal History at Yale Law School. He teaches and writes in four fields: trust and estate law, pension and employee benefit law, Anglo-American and European legal history, and modern comparative law.

Reviews

... this book consolidates and expands numerous important themes that Langbein has done so much to develop in an exceptionally clear and systematic way. It will be essential reading for anybody who wishes to understand the procedural dynamic that underpinned the changing face of the eighteenth century English criminal trial. The Cambridge Law Journal Professor Langbein's latest book helps to complete a picture that has been built up in his previous work and enhances his reputation as a leading, if not the leading, historian of Anglo-American and European legal procedures. British Journal of Criminology ... a fascinating account of how the adversary criminal trial came about. British Journal of Criminology ... here at last is a clear, convincing and authoritative account of how the English adversary criminal system came into being. The sources are well marshalled to create a most readable text. British Journal of Criminology ... an immensely stimulating read and draws together the threads of a body of work which has helped transform our understanding of eighteenth century criminal procedure. Law Quarterly Review John H. Langbein has written an extraordinarily interesting book, based on deep research and advanced in a remarkably cogent fashion. H. T. Dickinson, Times Literary Supplement ... informative and stimulating. H. T. Dickinson, Times Literary Supplement