1.

Record Nr.

UNINA9910136398303321

Autore

Schneider Wendie Ellen

Titolo

Engines of Truth : Producing Veracity in the Victorian Courtroom / / Wendie Ellen Schneider

Pubbl/distr/stampa

New Haven, : Yale University Press, 2016

New Haven, CT : , : Yale University Press, , [2016]

©2016

Descrizione fisica

1 online resource (280 pages) : illustrations, figures, tables

Disciplina

347.075

Soggetti

Procedure (Law) - Great Britain - History - 19th century

Cross-examination - Great Britain - History - 19th century

History

Great Britain

Lingua di pubblicazione

Inglese

Formato

Materiale a stampa

Livello bibliografico

Monografia

Note generali

Includes index.

Nota di bibliografia

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Nota di contenuto

Frontmatter -- Contents -- Acknowledgments -- Introduction -- 1. The Rise and Fall of Perjury Prosecutions -- 2. The Gentlemanly Art of Cross-examination -- 3. Perjury and Prevarication in British India -- 4. The Queen's Proctor: An Inquisitorial Experiment -- 5. Adultery, Sex Offenses, and the Criminal Evidence Act of 1898 -- Notes -- Index

Sommario/riassunto

During the Victorian era, new laws allowed more witnesses to testify in court cases. At the same time, an emerging cultural emphasis on truth-telling drove the development of new ways of inhibiting perjury. Strikingly original and drawing on a broad array of archival research, Wendie Schneider's examination of the Victorian courtroom charts this period of experimentation and how its innovations shaped contemporary trial procedure. Blending legal, social, and colonial history, she shines new light on cross-examination, the most enduring product of this time and the "greatest legal engine ever invented for the discovery of truth."