Menu Expand

From the Judge's ›Arbitrium‹ to the Legality Principle

Cite BOOK

Style

Martyn, G., Musson, A., Pihlajamäki, H. (Eds.) (2013). From the Judge's ›Arbitrium‹ to the Legality Principle. Legislation as a Source of Law in Criminal Trials. Duncker & Humblot. https://doi.org/10.3790/978-3-428-54018-1
Martyn, Georges; Musson, Anthony and Pihlajamäki, Heikki. From the Judge's ›Arbitrium‹ to the Legality Principle: Legislation as a Source of Law in Criminal Trials. Duncker & Humblot, 2013. Book. https://doi.org/10.3790/978-3-428-54018-1
Martyn, G, Musson, A, Pihlajamäki, H (eds.) (2013): From the Judge's ›Arbitrium‹ to the Legality Principle: Legislation as a Source of Law in Criminal Trials, Duncker & Humblot, [online] https://doi.org/10.3790/978-3-428-54018-1

Format

From the Judge's ›Arbitrium‹ to the Legality Principle

Legislation as a Source of Law in Criminal Trials

Editors: Martyn, Georges | Musson, Anthony | Pihlajamäki, Heikki

Comparative Studies in Continental and Anglo-American Legal History, Vol. 31

(2013)

Additional Information

Book Details

Pricing

About The Author

Georges Martyn studied law and medieval studies in Kortrijk and Leuven (Belgium). In 1996 he defended his PhD thesis on early modern private law legislation in the Southern Netherlands. From 1992 to 2008 he was »advocaat« (lawyer/barrister). Since 1999 is Professor of Legal History, Legal Methodology and General Introduction to Law at the University of Ghent, where he is Director of the Legal History Institute. He is also a substitute magistrate (justice of the peace). His main fields of research are the history of the legal professions, legal iconography and early modern private and public law.

Anthony Musson is Professor of Legal History at the University of Exeter and Co-Director of the Bracton Centre for Legal History Research. He has published extensively in the fields of criminal justice history, medieval political and legal culture including [with W.M. Ormrod] »The Evolution of English Justice« (Basingstoke, 1999) and »Medieval Law in Context« (Manchester, 2001). He has also published »Crime, Law and Society in the Later Middle Ages« [with Edward Powell] (Manchester, 2009) and several volumes of essays including »Making Legal History« (Cambridge, 2012) [edited jointly with Chantal Stebbings]. He has held research awards from the British Academy (exploring legal iconography, especially images of the law in art and the architecture of court buildings) and the Economic and Social Research Council (examining the private lives of medieval and Tudor lawyers).

Heikki Pihlajamäki is professor of comparative legal history at the Faculty of Law of the University of Helsinki, and he is one of the leading legal historians and comparative lawyers in Northern Europe. Pihlajamäki has been a visiting professor at several European universities (Ghent, Frankfurt, Madrid). He has published many books, peer-reviewed articles and contributions on legal-historical themes of the early modern period, but also on other subjects and other eras. Professor Pihlajamäki is member of the Scientific Advisory Board of the Max-Planck-Institut für europäische Rechtsgeschichte in Frankfurt and of the editorial board of four international legal history journals.

Abstract

The legality principle characterizes all western legal systems, and it has become an integral part of the Western rule of law and the international human rights law. The principle dates back to enlightened jurists such as Cesare Beccaria and to social contract thinkers such as Charles de Secondat de Montesquieu, according to whom judges were to act only as the mouthpiece of the statutory law. Paul Johann Anselm von Feuerbach, the inventor of the famous maxim ›nullum crimen, nulla poena sine lege‹, developed these thoughts further. The emergence of the legality principle links closely to the teachings on the division of powers. The studies of this volume cover most of Europe from England, Italy and Spain to Sweden, Russia and England, and both the South and North American continents. In most parts of Europe, the nineteenth-century criminal law reforms form an integral part of the ›liberal‹ agenda. These changes took place, however, at different times in different parts of the Western world, and for slightly different reasons. Comparative legal history shows, furthermore, that the roots of the principle date much further back in history than the eighteenth century. Before the formulation of the legality principle, written statutes already played a significant role in the criminal law in many parts of the Western world. The articles of the volume, written by the foremost experts on comparative legal history, demonstrate that the attitudes and practices toward written statutes as sources of criminal law varied greatly from one region to another. In most parts of the European continent judicial arbitration was carefully defined in legal scholarship (Italy, France), whereas in some regions written law played an important role from early on (Sweden). Although the nineteenth century was fundamental in shaping the legality principle, in some countries its breakthrough remained even then far from complete (Russia, the United States).The legality principle characterizes all western legal systems, and it has become an integral part of the Western rule of law and the international human rights law. The principle dates back to enlightened jurists such as Cesare Beccaria and to social contract thinkers such as Charles de Secondat de Montesquieu, according to whom judges were to act only as the mouthpiece of the statutory law. Paul Johann Anselm von Feuerbach, the inventor of the famous maxim $anullum crimen, nulla poena sine lege,$z developed these thoughts further. The emergence of the legality principle links closely to the teachings on the division of powers. The studies of this volume cover most of Europe from England, Italy and Spain to Sweden, Russia and England, and both the South and North American continents. In most parts of Europe, the nineteenth-century criminal law reforms form an integral part of the ›liberal‹ agenda. These changes took place, however, at different times in different parts of the Western world, and for slightly different reasons. Comparative legal history shows, furthermore, that the roots of the principle date much further back in history than the eighteenth century. Before the formulation of the legality principle, written statutes already played a significant role in the criminal law in many parts of the Western world. The articles of the volume, written by the foremost experts on comparative legal history, demonstrate that the attitudes and practices toward written statutes as sources of criminal law varied greatly from one region to another. In most parts of the European continent judicial arbitration was carefully defined in legal scholarship (Italy, France), whereas in some regions written law played an important role from early on (Sweden). Although the nineteenth century was fundamental in shaping the legality principle, in some countries its breakthrough remained even then far from complete (Russia, the United States).

Table of Contents

Section Title Page Action Price
Table of Contents 5
Georges Martyn: Introduction: From Arbitrium to Legality? Or Legality and Arbitrium? 7
I. Presentation of the general theme: the legality principle 7
II. Some introductory questions and some elements of response from a Flemish point of view 14
III. A variety of responses 21
IV. Acknowledgements 31
Anthony Musson: Criminal Legislation and the Common Law in Late Medieval England 33
I. Introduction 33
II. Inception of Statutes 35
III. The Reception of Legislation 40
IV. Conclusion 46
Massimo Meccarelli: Dimensions of Justice and Ordering Factors in Criminal Law from the Middle Ages till Juridical Modernity 49
I. Introduction 49
II. Facere iustitiam as moment of determining justice 50
1. The fields of tension of criminal justice in the Medieval and Modern Ages 51
2. Negotiated and hegemonic justice 51
3. Accusatio and inquisitio 53
4. Ordinarium and extraordinarium 55
III. Morphology of the trial order in ius commune 57
IV. Value of the centrality of the judge within the ius commune trial order 60
V. Towards the facere iustitiam as moment of administering justice 63
Wim Decock: The Judge’s Conscience and the Protection of the Criminal Defendant: Moral Safeguards against Judicial Arbitrariness 69
I. Introduction 69
II. Theologians, the Morality of Judging, and Criminal Law 71
III. The judge’s conscience, public order and the moral foundations of legality 79
IV. Putting the protection of the innocent criminal defendant centre-stage 86
V. Conclusion 92
Sébastien Dhalluin: Control of the Arbitrium of the Criminal Judge of the ‘Parliament of Flanders’ by Royal Legislation 95
I. Introduction 95
II. Legal framework of the judge’s arbitrium 96
1. The judge’s arbitrium in the determination of the final punishment 96
2. Torture: the preparatory inquisition or the legal admission of arbitrary practices 98
III. A legislative attempt to abolish the judge’s arbitrium 101
1. Preservation of public safety 101
2. The forced conversion of Protestants to Catholicism 104
IV. Conclusion 107
Mathias Schmoeckel: The Mystery of Power Verdicts Solved? Frederick II of Prussia and the Emerging Independence of Jurisdiction 109
I. Introduction: the ‘Müller Arnold’ case 109
II. The Prince as supreme judge in the ius commune 113
III. The constitution of the State according to Calvin 120
IV. Calvinist authors 125
V. Frederick’s position in the discussion 130
VI. Conclusions 139
Sylvain Soleil: “Lex Imperat”: Creation and Exportation of the French Model of Legality Principle (18th-19th C.) 145
I. The creation of the French model of legality 146
1. ‘All punishments are arbitrary in this kingdom’ 146
2. ‘By virtue of the law ...’ 148
3. The codification of crimes and penalties 151
4. The exaltation of the law 153
5. The establishment of the system 154
6. Terror and the suspension of the principle of legality 155
II. The circulation of the French model of legality 157
Heikki Pihlajamäki: Legalism before the Legality Principle? Royal Statutes and Early Modern Swedish Criminal Law 169
I. Ius commune and the early modern system of legal sources 169
II. The legal history of Swedish statute law 172
III. Statutes in medieval Swedish law 175
IV. Statutes in early modern Swedish law 180
V. Conclusions 187
Matthew C. Mirow: The Legality Principle and the Constitution of Cádiz 189
I. Introduction 189
II. Legality, criminal law, and the debates 192
III. Constitutional limitations on the official discretion of the king 195
IV. Constitutional limitations on the official discretion of the courts 196
V. Constitutional aspects of legislativity, specificity, and codification 198
VI. Conclusion 201
Appendix 202
António Manuel Hespanha: The Pale Shade of Legality: The Resilience of Arbitrary Criminal Iudicia after the Era of Revolutions – the Portuguese case 207
Alejandro Agüero: Law and Criminal Justice in the Spanish Colonial Order: the Problematic Enforcement of the Legality Principle in the Early National Law in Argentina 229
I. Introduction 229
II. A different conception of law and authority 230
1. Religious heteronomy 231
2. Factualism, particularism, casuism and customary law 232
3. A rule of judges, not of laws: iurisdictio and arbitrium 233
4. Flexibility and localization 235
III. Law in action: the ‘other sources’ of justice 235
1. Religion and doctrine as source of law 236
2. Indulgence, dissimulation and bargaining 237
3. Utility, custom and convenience 240
4. Local power and the limits of arbitrium 242
IV. After the colonial period: the paradox of a legality principle jurisprudentially enshrined 246
V. Epilogue 250
Aniceto Masferrer: Principle of Legality and Codification in the Western Criminal Law Reform 253
I. Introduction: legal chaos and the need for legal reform(18th–19th centuries) 253
II. Political and liberal reformism and the principle of legality (19th century) 262
1. Principle of legality, criminal law reform through codification in the civil law tradition 271
2. Principle of legality and criminal law reform through statutes / codes in the common law tradition 275
III. Concluding considerations 288
Tatiana Borisova: Legislation as a Source of Law in Late Imperial Russia 295
I. Introduction 295
II. For whom laws were published? 296
III. Emergence of a legal community and a change in the procedure of law publication 304
IV. Conclusion 314
Marju Luts-Sootak / Marin Sedman: Ambivalences of the Legality Principle in the Penal Law of the Baltic Provinces in the Russian Empire (1710-1917) 317
I. Introductory remarks 317
II. Historically developed plurality of penal laws until 1846 320
III. The situation after the Code of Criminal and Correctional Penalties of 1845 entered into force 334
IV. The Russian judicial reform of 1864 and the state established problem of plurality of penal laws 341
V. The judicial reform of 1889 in the Baltic Provinces – the plurality of penal codes increases even more 345
VI. The Penal Code of 1903: ambivalent attempt to organize criminal legislation 347
VII. Conclusion 348
Kimmo Nuotio: Legality over Time: the Path of the Nullum Crimen Principle to a Fully Anchored Legal Principle in Finnish Penal Law 351
Markus D. Dubber: The Legality Principle in American and German Criminal Law: An Essay in Comparative Legal History 365
I. The alegality of American penality 365
II. A Critical analysis of the legality principle through comparative legal history 370
1. History 371
2. Law 373
3. Comparison 375
4. The legality principle in German criminal law: a critical analysis 379
III. Conclusion 384
Michele Pifferi: Indetermined Sentence and the Nulla Poena Sine Lege Principle: Contrasting Views on Punishment in the U.S. and Europe between the 19th and the 20th Century 387
I. Introduction. Indetermined sentence and the principle of legality 387
II. The new targets of criminology: prevention and social defense 389
III. Quarrels at the international congresses 394
IV. Getting round the legality: the bifurcation into verdict and sentence 397
V. Unworkability of the indetermined sentence 400
VI. Return to legality 403
Contributors 407