Abstract
The police courts in England were the most commonly used legal institution for the working class for over a century, yet historians have neglected analyzing them in detail for decades. Sascha Auerbach corrects this oversight in his recent study, Armed with Sword and Scales: Law, Culture, and Local Courtrooms in London, 1860–1913. He peruses the usual sources—newspapers, government reports, magistrates’ memoirs—but also the few surviving minutes and clerks’ books of police court hearings, with particular emphasis on the Clerkenwell Police Court in Islington. Overall, he concludes that the longevity and popularity of these courts resulted from “their ability to achieve this balance of centralized, institutional cohesion on the one hand and responsiveness to local concerns on the other” (343). The first three chapters chronicle the history of the courts from 1758 to 1902. After an uneven start, the system gained standard procedures, a well-paid magistracy, and plentiful business. Auerbach...
Published Version
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