Armed with Sword and Scales

Law, Culture, and Local Courtrooms in London, 1860–1913

Sascha Auerbach

• Publisher: Cambridge University Press
• Year: 2021
• Print ISBN:
  9781108491556
• eBook ISBN:
  9781108864039
• Topic: History
• Subtopic: British History
• Index: History

In the mid-eighteenth century, author and magistrate Henry Fielding adjudicated cases of theft, assault, and public disorder from his London home on Bow Street. By the middle of the nineteenth century, Fielding's modest 'police office' had expanded to become the most prolific court system in Britain and the cornerstone of criminal and civil justice in the metropolis. Sascha Auerbach examines the fascinating history of this institution through the lens of 'courtroom culture' – the combination of formal statute and informal custom that guided everyday practice in the London Police Courts. He offers a new model for understanding the relationship between law, culture, and society in modern Britain and illuminates how the local courtroom became a crucial part of everyday life and thoroughly entangled with popular representations of justice and morality.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half-title page
• Series page
• Title page
• Copyright page
• Dedication
• Epigraph
• Contents
• Map
• List of Figures
• Acknowledgments
• Glossary of Terms and Abbreviations
• Introduction: Courtroom Culture
• 1 “Many-Coloured Scenes of Life”: The Police Courts in Metropolitan Culture and Society, 1758–1860
• 2 “A Ruffian Rightly Punished”: Morality and Local Courtrooms in Practice and Portrayal, 1860–80
• 3 “An Evil Quarter of an Hour about the Precincts”: Urban Reform and Municipal Authority in the Courtroom, 1870–1902
• 4 “Two Shillings’ Worth of Revenge in the Form of a Summons”: The Integration of Courtrooms and Communities in London, 1882–1902
• 5 A Poor Woman’s Court of Justice, 1882–1910
• 6 “The Very Centre of Observation and Information”: Constables, Magistrates, and Changing Patterns of Prosecution and Punishment, 1880–1913
• Conclusion: The Historical and Cultural Legacies of the London Magistrates’ Courts
• Bibliography
• Index