Title Informal justice in England and Wales, 1760-1914 : the courts of popular opinion / Stephen Banks

Published Woodbridge, Suffolk, UK : The Boydell Press, [2014] ©2014

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Description 1 online resource (xii, 224 pages) Contents Introduction -- 1. Law, symbolism and punishment -- 2. Localism, justice and the right to judge -- 3. The forms of rough music -- 4. Sex, gender and moral policing -- 5. Defending economic interests -- 6. Political resistance -- 7. Resistive communities -- 8. Performance and proscription -- Aftermath Summary "This is a study of law, wrongdoing and justice as conceived in the minds of the ordinary people of England and Wales from the later eighteenth century to the First World War. Official justice was to become increasingly centralised with declining traditional courts, emerging professional policing and a new prison estate. However, popular concepts of what was, or should be, contained within the law were often at variance with its formal written content. Communities continued to hold mock courts, stage shaming processions and burn effigies of wrongdoers. The author investigates those justice rituals, the actors, the victims and the offences that occasioned them. He also considers the role such practices played in resistive communities trying to preserve their identity and assert their independence. Finally, whilst documenting the decline of popular justice traditions this book demonstrates that they were nevertheless important in bequeathing a powerful set of symbols and practices to the nascent labour movement. This book will be of interest to scholars and students of legal history and criminal justice as well as social and cultural history in what could be considered a very long nineteenth century. Stephen Banks is an associate professor in criminal law, criminal justice and legal history at the University of Reading, co-director of the Forum for Legal and Historical Research and author of A Polite Exchange of Bullets: The Duel and the English Gentleman, 1750-1850 (The Boydell Press, 2010)."-- Provided by publisher Bibliography Includes bibliographical references and index Notes Print version record Subject Criminal justice, Administration of -- England -- Citizen participation -- History Criminal justice, Administration of -- Wales -- Citizen participation -- History Customary law courts -- England -- History Customary law courts -- Wales -- History Vigilance committees -- England -- History Vigilance committees -- Wales -- History Dispute resolution (Law) -- England -- History Dispute resolution (Law) -- Wales -- History SOCIAL SCIENCE -- Criminology. HISTORY -- Europe -- Great Britain. Criminal justice, Administration of -- Citizen participation Customary law courts Dispute resolution (Law) Vigilance committees England Wales Genre/Form History Form Electronic book ISBN 9781782043249 1782043241 132206928X 9781322069289

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