A History Of The Criminal Law Of England

The book "A History of the Criminal Law of England" was written by Sir James Fitzjames Stephen in 1883. It is a three-volume account of the development of English criminal law, and was based on the author's previous work in the field. Despite being a supporter of codification, Stephen's book provides a detailed historical perspective on the English criminal justice system, including its courts, procedures, and punishments. It also includes a comparison with French criminal procedure.

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 1 contains a short preliminary account of Roman criminal law and pre-Conquest English criminal law; a survey of courts exercising criminal jurisdiction; a historical account of the development of the main elements of criminal procedure; a history of criminal punishments; and a general comparative view of the differences between English and French criminal procedure.