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2 - Felony in the Archives

from Part I - Felonia Felonice Facta: Felony and Intentionality

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  18 July 2019

Elizabeth Papp Kamali
Affiliation:
Harvard Law School, Massachusetts
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Summary

Chapter 2 relies upon descriptions of what jurors found not to be felonious to draw conclusions about the meaning of felony in the medieval English legal context. Perhaps because the law was not heavily theorized, or perhaps because these are complex matters with which we still struggle in modern jurisprudence, medieval English felony law was tested by particular circumstantial elements that made a simple guilt or innocence determination difficult for jurors to reach. The chapter’s discussion of the paradigm of felony relies primarily on analysis of the categories of accident, self-defense, insanity, infancy, and duress. This paradigm, unmistakably influenced by notions of mind rather than reflecting a mere category of criminal acts, might be summarized as follows: a crime involving deliberation and rationality, the exercise of a person’s will in the absence of countervailing necessity, and an act that was wrongful and perhaps essentially wicked. Surely not all felonies fit this paradigm, but a pattern does emerge from a close reading of the plea rolls alongside literary texts.

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Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2019

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  • Felony in the Archives
  • Elizabeth Papp Kamali, Harvard Law School, Massachusetts
  • Book: Felony and the Guilty Mind in Medieval England
  • Online publication: 18 July 2019
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108670890.003
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  • Felony in the Archives
  • Elizabeth Papp Kamali, Harvard Law School, Massachusetts
  • Book: Felony and the Guilty Mind in Medieval England
  • Online publication: 18 July 2019
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108670890.003
Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

  • Felony in the Archives
  • Elizabeth Papp Kamali, Harvard Law School, Massachusetts
  • Book: Felony and the Guilty Mind in Medieval England
  • Online publication: 18 July 2019
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108670890.003
Available formats
×