The Origins of Adversary Criminal Trial

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.

... 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.

• 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