CRIM 2652 Lecture Notes - Lecture 4: Bloody Code, Legal Formalism, Quality Control
14 Dec 2016
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September 27th, 2012
Origis ad oerie of riial justie/ Models of Criminal Justice
1. Historial Origis of Justie
2. Majesty, Justice and Mercy (Douglas Hay)
- Start looking at law as technical, also something as performance of values, principles, and ideas.
Understanding law that way can help us signify its importance in our social world.
o Stop looking at law as a bunch of rules
- Tougher sentences, longer sentences and more offenders actually have virtually no effect on
crime rates.
o Applying tough sentencing will not prevent the offender from re-offending
o Only 5% of crimes end up receiving sentenced. Most of it is already dealt with in the
previous stages.
- Law we are talking about is capitalist law,; we live in a capitalist society
o Our law meets our wants and needs
Historical Origins of the official version of law ad oeptio of justie
- Capitalism
- New wealth producers
o They challenged the inherited social political power of those who owned the land
- Wealth=money (not land)
o They wanted predictable, transparent & consistent laws.
- Rights and freedoms of individuals
- Wealth was tied from land
- Bourgeoisies needed protection from aristocrats
- These ideas led to revolution (France, U.S.)
- Rule of law
o We all chose to engage in the rules of the game
o This situates us as equals before and under the law
o For them, equality mean their own liberty and that the power of aristocrats and
sovereigns be limited
- Mass inequality: economic and political
- Bloody code and Enclosure laws
o Bloody code – criminal code that developed in the 17-18th century. Massive increases in
capital offences. Reason – during this period of changes, a large # of people were traded
for their disputes.
o They also had the rights to the commons. Peasants can go there hunt, fish, light
firewood, supplement their existence in that way.
▪ In transaction to apitalis, there as the itro of las of elosure
• Land was closed off and deemed private.
• The peasants lost their access to the commons & could no longer fish
hunt etc. hence they began trespassing & coaching.
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
September 27th, 2012
Origis ad oerie of riial justie/ Models of Criminal Justice
• The gentleman who owned the land were the same men who turned
these activities to capital offences
• Such actions raise the question of legitimacy.
• How a system that was so just become so unjust?
• How could a bloody code come to hold the authority?
o The law is about much more than its aout content. The law
speaks ideologially ad syolially. Its a state ad
performance of values that shows us that the system is just. –
Hay
- How can law be legitimate?
Doug Hay (1975)
- Majesty
o Spectacle, awe, theatre, morality
o Judges would ride out 4 times a year to hear indiable cases in a variety of different
districts
- Judges
o Must not only be done, but seen to be done
o Procedural rules and legal formalism
o Widely publicized trials of the wealthy
o Court rooms were also marked by spectacle, judges wore that weird grey hair, wore
robes, etc. all to show their power
▪ “eular sermons (?)
o Handing down of sentences were also done by extreme acts
▪ Wear black if it was death penalty
▪ Took everything too hard; too dramatic
▪ Whe they proouced the seteces they’d always coet how such
sentence would restore order and morality
▪ Judges are charged with the duty of ensuring that even the poorest man gets
justice in the courts
• Maintained through absurd formalism
o Hay says all rules should be applied equally or not applied at all.
▪ Mans would be sentenced and their sentencing was publicized ( I guess that
gave society the feeling of safety and of having justice)
- Mercy
o Discretionary power reinforces authority
o Power that judges had to pardon the offenders
o Upheld and strengthened the hierarchal power in which the system operated
o According to Hay,
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
Document Summary
Origi(cid:374)s a(cid:374)d o(cid:448)er(cid:448)ie(cid:449) of (cid:272)ri(cid:373)i(cid:374)al (cid:862)justi(cid:272)e(cid:863)/ models of criminal justice: histori(cid:272)al origi(cid:374)s of (cid:858)justi(cid:272)e(cid:859, majesty, justice and mercy (douglas hay) Start looking at law as technical, also something as performance of values, principles, and ideas. Understanding law that way can help us signify its importance in our social world: stop looking at law as a bunch of rules. Tougher sentences, longer sentences and more offenders actually have virtually no effect on crime rates: applying tough sentencing will not prevent the offender from re-offending, only 5% of crimes end up receiving sentenced. Most of it is already dealt with in the previous stages. Law we are talking about is capitalist law,; we live in a capitalist society: our law meets our wants and needs. Historical origins of the official version of law a(cid:374)d (cid:272)o(cid:374)(cid:272)eptio(cid:374) of (cid:862)justi(cid:272)e(cid:863) New wealth producers: they challenged the inherited social political power of those who owned the land.
