What periods and locations in early European history had evidence based criminal trials?
Upvote:2
As heretical as this sounds . . . the Inquisition.
Of course this sounds completely counter-intuitive, as the crimes prosecuted by inquisitors were slippery, to say it mildly, and the "evidence" could be as ephemeral as cobwebs. However, it is precisely because of this that the Inquisition revolutionized the way trials were handled. Most of what we associate with a proper trial was either invented or popularized by the Inquisition. That includes proper trial transcripts, professional officers of the law, "modern" ideas of evidence, and limitations on torture.
(On the last point, understand that the common opinion of the time was that you could not trust a statement that wasn't made under torture. The manuals given to inquisitors are among the few documents of the era that instructed otherwise.)
There are several reasons why the Inquisition had such a tremendous impact on legal proceedings. The crimes being prosecuted were problematic for the conventional courts - the issues were often subtle and the verdicts often had major political and social ramifications. Many prosecutions involved difficult points of church doctrine, beyond the capacity of an ordinary feudal court to analyze. A verdict reached too casually could inflame a riot (or even a war ) - "heretic" and "rebel" were often all-but synonymous in a milieu where kings were assumed to be blessed by the divine. The Inquisition itself was extra-territorial, with avenues of appeal leading all the way to Rome.
Thus there was a lot of pressure on the inquisitors to develop iron-clad verdicts based on unimpeachable evidence, properly documented and derived in a consistent, professional manner. Of course, it took centuries to develop and was not always successful.
It should not be surprising that over time, the haphazard civil court systems of Europe would be deeply influenced by the much more sophisticated inquisitions. Standards for how courts were run, transcripts kept, appeals heard, and testimony obtained, inevitably improved in imitation of the evolving model. In time (mostly the 17th century) the law codes were updated to reflect the new procedures and the ideas that motivated them, and the form of our modern court systems were solidified.
More post
- 📝 Did Germany lose World War II when/because "kill ratios" started moving "against" her?
- 📝 Why was Basel, Switzerland chosen for the First Zionist Congress?
- 📝 In the Soviet Union, how was payment enforced for public transportation?
- 📝 Was Reagan Disliked By Establishment Republicans?
- 📝 Why did USSR lay down undersea communications cable between Petropavlovsk and Vladivostok?
- 📝 Why did Hitler declare war on the USA?
- 📝 How did the countries devolved from USSR turn from communism to democracy or other ideology peacefully after the collapse?
- 📝 Were Pharaohs still inscribed on walls and written on papyrus after their deaths?
- 📝 How formalised were the various tiers of Russian nobility during the regency of Sophia Alekseyevna?
- 📝 Is Josephus' account for the length of the Jewish War generally accepted as correct?
- 📝 Are the ancestors of Saudi royal family Jewish?
- 📝 Bretton Woods System : The Meaning as International Monetary System
- 📝 Are today's Palestinians immigrants from many nations?
- 📝 Did pagan tribes in the Arab peninsula use bells for superstitious or religious reasons before and with the introduction of Islam?
- 📝 What are the social preconditions for division of labour, when compared in different emerging civilizations?
- 📝 When is the first recorded instance of someone dying for a principle?
- 📝 Why could Phoenicians sail past Cape Bojador but later Europeans could not until 1434?
- 📝 How much did it cost to buy a ticket on the Orient Express from Paris to Istanbul in 1914?
- 📝 What country has had territorial disputes with the largest number of neighbors/other countries at the same time?
- 📝 What kill ratio would Nazi Germany need in 1945 to win?
- 📝 How granting Kosovo independence was a violation of international law?
- 📝 When was the first documented mention of mechanically generated electricity?
- 📝 Why did the German Military and Police not intervene during the years of NSDAP ascend?
- 📝 What did it mean to be a "Jacobite" at the turn of the 20th Century?
- 📝 What was the earliest knitted sweater?
- 📝 What is the origin of straight municipal boundary line in NJ?
- 📝 Russian war reparations from Germany post WW2
- 📝 Did the Greeks and Romans use reputational incentives to induce people to pay more tax?
- 📝 How many Britons lived in India during the British Raj (1858 - 1947)?
- 📝 Is there any history of a government/ruling party refusing to accept a Supreme Court order?
Source: stackoverflow.com
Search Posts
Related post
- 📝 What periods and locations in early European history had evidence based criminal trials?
- 📝 What is the evidence to claim that political order in ancient Rome was sufficiently different under "kingdom", "republic" and "empire"?
- 📝 What is the earliest evidence of contact between Ireland and Egypt?
- 📝 Even though Spain and Portugal had many colonies (15th/16th C), what factors permitted UK/France to become world powers later (18th/19th C)?
- 📝 What did other European powers say when Portugal and Spain signed the Treaty of Tordesillas?
- 📝 What were the thoughts of the Celts, Romans and other ancient European people about the standing stones which survive from prehistoric times?
- 📝 At what point, and why, did snuff tobacco fall out of favor with European nobility?
- 📝 What changes happened in law enforcement and criminal trials during the Nazi era in Germany?
- 📝 What did European people of the 5th century AD eat during spring and what was the availability?
- 📝 Was it common practice in Victorian London or other Western European cities to name locations as places where fictional characters lived and acted?
- 📝 What is the historical evidence for asserting Huns were one and the same as Xiongnu?
- 📝 What were the advantages and disadvantages of Mongolian cavalry (compared to European cavalry)?
- 📝 What evidence is there of Asians and Africans in medieval Britain other than Moors in the 7th century?
- 📝 What trains were used on the Dakar-Niger Railway in the late 1950s and early 1960s?
- 📝 What happened when the Çatalhöyük burial holes were full and the houses had no more room?
- 📝 What is the source and history of "green on blue attack" expression?
- 📝 What did Central America export in the early 20th century other than coffee and bananas?
- 📝 Under European feudalism, were the distribution of armies (vassals and fiefdoms) based on a coherent idea?
- 📝 What is known about early history of Judaism?
- 📝 What were the largest European treasuries, in gold and silver, at the end of the Seven Years War?
- 📝 What percentage of US households had electricity and telephones in 1940?
- 📝 What was the fighting style and equipment of 13th century Eastern European Baltic and Slavic cavalry?
- 📝 What sort of architecture existed in Catholic Eastern Europe around the late 1100's and very early 1200's?
- 📝 The history of rivalry between US and Britain in late 19th Century and early 20th Century
- 📝 What relation do the early sexual experiences of Lolita and her classmates bear to the real experience of children in New England in 1947?
- 📝 What are the origins and history of shaking, trembling, jerking, contorting, collapsing, fainting and similar manifestations in Christianity?
- 📝 What is the history of Research and Development laboratories?
- 📝 What evidence is there relating to Matilda of Scotland as a wife (to Henry I) and mother (to Empress Matilda and William the Adelin)?
- 📝 For U.S. history 1800-1830, what was GDP by sector and industry?
- 📝 Why do we study Mughals as part of medieval history of India and European conquest as modern India?