A History of the Criminal Law of England

Published in 1883, this three-volume account of English criminal law's development since 1200 remains a classic work of legal historical scholarship.

Published in 1883, this three-volume account was the first scholarly historical survey of English criminal law's development from the thirteenth century. A classic work, it covers the different courts exercising criminal jurisdiction, procedure in criminal cases, punishments, criminal responsibility, the classification of different types of offence, and specific criminal offences.Sir James Fitzjames Stephen (1829–94) published this three-volume account of the English criminal law's historical development in 1883, four years after his appointment as a judge of the High Court. It is a revision and expansion of the second chapter in Stephen's 1863 General View (also reissued in this series). At first sight, it is ironic that the author of this classic of legal historical scholarship was himself a Benthamite who favoured and promoted the codification of the common law and worked on codes of criminal law and procedure for India and for England. Volume 3 covers the history of the criminal offences not covered in Volume 2 (murder and other offences against the person; theft and other property offences; and offences relating to trade and labour) and also covers the development of Indian criminal law and the main features of the Indian Penal Code of 1860 and Code of Criminal Procedure of 1882.