CRI392H1 Lecture Notes - Lecture 1: Warwick School, Class Conflict
28 Aug 2018
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Document Summary
Most common law jurisdictions are, in fact, mixed (civil law, customary law, indigenous legal systems) The common law is flexible, ad often incorporates local legal concepts and traditions. The history of the common law is also the history of british imperialism, even within the uk itself. Aka secondary sources the scholarly literature, the field . Four big approaches: positivist/empirical pre-1960, theoretical-from 1960, social from 1970, cultural. Confidence that government records, especially statics, are fairly reliable sources. Implicit or explicit belief in steady progress over time. Enduring interest in crime rates and other quantitative metrics. Frequent presentist orientation-using the past to explain further and now. Influenced by maxism and the works of michael foccault (and others) Emphasis on social and economic structures and their impact on criminal justice. Strong emphasis on criminal justice as tool of power. Replaced optimism of empirical approach with deep cynicism about state power and class (and other forms of) oppression.
