Review of John Langbein's The Origins of Adversary Criminal Trial (original) (raw)

The late AW Brian Simpson points out the paradox that the substantive criminal law varies very little between common law and civil law systems while the procedure by which allegations of criminal offences are determined are very different. The contrast between the adversary criminal trial of common law jurisdictions where barristers compete to present to a jury of lay people competing versions of a narrative that flows from the evidence and the inquisitorial judicial investigation of the civil system could not be more different. Adversary Trial seeks to explain the historical origins of these differences and demonstrate the reasons why the criminal trial in England developed in the way that it did.