Felony and the Guilty Mind in Medieval England

Erscheinungsjahr 2020
ISBN: 978-1-108-71274-3
Verlag: Cambridge University Press

Buch, Englisch, 352 Seiten, Paperback, Format (B × H): 152 mm x 229 mm, Gewicht: 575 g

Reihe: Studies in Legal History

This book explores the role of mens rea, broadly defined as a factor in jury assessments of guilt and innocence from the early thirteenth through the fourteenth century - the first two centuries of the English criminal trial jury. Drawing upon evidence from the plea rolls, but also relying heavily upon non-legal textual sources such as popular literature and guides for confessors, Elizabeth Papp Kamali argues that issues of mind were central to jurors' determinations of whether a particular defendant should be convicted, pardoned, or acquitted outright. Demonstrating that the word 'felony' itself connoted a guilty state of mind, she explores the interplay between social conceptions of guilt and innocence and jury behavior. Furthermore, she reveals a medieval understanding of felony that involved, in its paradigmatic form, three essential elements: an act that was reasoned, was willed in a way not constrained by necessity, and was evil or wicked in its essence.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Kamali, Elizabeth Papp

Fachgebiete

• Geisteswissenschaften Geschichtswissenschaft Alte Geschichte & Archäologie Vor- und Frühgeschichte, prähistorische Archäologie
• Rechtswissenschaften Recht, Rechtswissenschaft Allgemein Rechtsgeschichte, Recht der Antike
• Geisteswissenschaften Geschichtswissenschaft Geschichtswissenschaft Allgemein
• Geisteswissenschaften Geschichtswissenschaft Weltgeschichte & Geschichte einzelner Länder und Gebietsräume Geschichte einzelner Länder Europäische Länder
• Geisteswissenschaften Geschichtswissenschaft Geschichtliche Themen Kultur- und Ideengeschichte
• Rechtswissenschaften Recht, Rechtswissenschaft Allgemein Rechtssoziologie, Rechtspsychologie, Rechtslinguistik
• Geisteswissenschaften Geschichtswissenschaft Geschichtliche Themen Mentalitäts- und Sozialgeschichte

Inhaltsverzeichnis

List of figures; Acknowledgments; List of abbreviations; Introduction; The history of Mens Rea; Methodology; The trial jury and its predecessors: Anglo-Saxon and Angevin Antecedents; A brief chapter summary; The essentials of medieval English felony procedure; Part I. Felonia Felonice Facta: Felony and Intentionality: 1. The meaning of felony; 1.1 Felonia Felonice Facta and the question of non-felonious felonies; 1.2 The etymology of felony; 2. Felony in the archives; 2.1 Words of felony in law and literature; 2.2 Accomplice liability and the nexus between actus reus and mens rea; 2.3. A felonious state of mind; 2.4 Conclusion to Part I; Part II. Þe Deuylys Doghtyr of Hellë Fyre: Felony and Emotion: 3. The language of anger; 3.1 An elite emotional episode: the Warenne-Zouche Incident; 3.2 The history of law and emotion; 3.3 The language of anger; 3.4 Anger and the common law: an overview; 3.5 Passion in the plea rolls; 3.6 Melancholic felony in Gower's Tale of Canace and Machaire; 4. Cultural understandings of anger; 4.1 Anger and the judgment day; 4.2 Positive manifestations of the passion; 4.3 Anger in the confessional; 4.4. Slights, affronts, and provocations; 4.5 Anger, provocation, and the medieval English jury; 4.6 Conclusion to Part II; Part III. Handlyng Synne: Guilt and Innocence: 5. Confession and circumstantial inquiry; 5.1 Confessions of a horse thief; 5.2 A confessing society; 5.3 Inquiry into the circumstances; 5.4 The role of confession in felony adjudication; 6. Guilt assessment in medieval England; 6.1 Handlyng Synne and crime; 6.2 Sins of thought, speech, deed; 6.3 Rankings of sins and crimes; 6.4 Conclusion to Part III; Part IV. Dies Iræ: Judge and Jury: 7. Tales of judging; 7.1 The perils and prosaic nature of judging; 7.2 Pontius Pilate and deference to jury verdicts; 7.3 The misjudging of Christ and its resonance; 8. The mind and comportment of judge and jury; 8.1 Erkenwald and the Pagan judge; 8.2 Harsh justice tempered by mercy; 8.3 The proper comportment of those who judge; 8.4 Judicial states of mind; 8.5 Conclusion to Part IV; Conclusion; Looking back; Looking forward; Legal literacy and the medieval English jury; Bibliography; Index.

Über Autor(innen)

Kamali, Elizabeth Papp
Elizabeth Papp Kamali is Assistant Professor of Law at Harvard Law School, Massachusetts.