William Garrow And Criminal Justice Reform Of England At The End Of The 18th Century

William Garrow(1760-1840)is one of the most famous criminal defense attorneys in the late 18 th century in England.He has made outstanding contributions to the modernization of trial methods in the criminal justice of England.The radical defense style he set up in his ten-year lawyer career has laid the foundation for the adversarial criminal trial and pushed forward the reform of criminal justice in Britain slowly.In addition to the introduction and conclusion,this paper is divided into three chapters: the life of William Garrow and the criminal trial environment in England before the reform;William Garrow in the criminal trial reform in England;the two-sided evaluation of William Garrow.The first chapter first introduces Garrow ’s life,from the diligent lawyer apprentice,to the rising defense lawyer,to the conservative mediocre politician,judge,his legal life is long and rich.Based on the theme of this paper,the author focuses on Garrow ’s shining ten years as a defense lawyer and puts it in the social background at that time.In the old days,the proliferation of capital punishment,the heavy punishment for misdemeanors,the exploitation of capital and the polarization between the rich and the poor provided a breeding ground for crime,and the prevalence of perjury by bounty hunters and tainted witnesses made British criminaltrial extremely cruel both criminal substantive law and procedurally.Fortunately,the injustice of reality has brought about the judicial discretion of the judge,and defense lawyers have been given the limited right to inquire and cross-examine in felony cases.It is in this institutional context that Garrow entered the stage of British criminal justice history.The second chapter explores what William Garrow did and how he did in the reform of criminal trial in England.As the leader of adversarial defense,Garrow’s ten-year practice is of great significance in the process of reshaping the British criminal trial.First,in the process of transition from criminal trial mode to adversary mode:Garrow has advanced defense concept,and constantly strengthen the lawyer’s comprehensive defense right in the field of felony development;Circumvention and use of rules to expand the technology and scope of cross-examination;The aggressive confrontational style helps the court establish the premise of evenly matched prosecution and defense,and accumulates a powerful force for the transformation of adversarial trial mode in the trial.Secondly,in the process of the development of criminal evidence rules: the situation of perjury in court makes the development of criminal evidence rules equally urgent.Garrow uses cross examination to spare no effort to fight,forces the court to face the defects of evidence,and promotes the establishment of new rules.The development of hearsay evidence rule,the principle of presumption of innocence,the principle of self incrimination is not short of Garrow’s stubborn figure year after year.Thirdly,in terms of reshaping the role of the court: the defense lawyers led by Garrow,while strongly involved in the trial of felony,conducted subtle structural transformation of the court,changing the functions of judges.In the aspect of exposing perjury and seeking facts,judges tend to be passive gradually;in the aspect of cross examination of evidence,the jury begins to keep silent,so as to conform to the rational development brought by lawyer’s defense.The third chapter discusses the double-sided evaluation of him in the 18 th century and later generations,showing his image in a more three-dimensional andcomprehensive way.On the one hand,he was an eloquent advocate of criminal justice reform.Excellent eloquence and logic,sharp insight and sharp defense style let people can not ignore;The achievements in the formation of adversarial trial,the establishment of evidence rules and the promotion of the development of defense lawyer have been praised by later scholars.On the other hand,he seems to be a glib talker who has made the search for truth an accessory to the lawyers’ success in criminal trials,a "liar" who upsets justice and seeks wealth.The conclusion summarizes and extracts the whole paper.Garrow’s aggressive defense brought unprecedented protection and benefits to criminal defendants,and the demand of The Times made him a leading figure in the era of criminal confrontation.Since then,the group of defense lawyers represented by Garrow developed and expanded,pointing out the direction of modern criminal defense in Anglo-American law system,and the criminal trial reform in Britain was also able to set sail rapidly.