Political Trials Research Articles

Justice, War, and the Imperium: India and Britain in Edmund Burke's Prosecutorial Speeches in the Impeachment Trial of Warren Hastings

The impeachment trial of Warren Hastings has long been considered one of the key political trials in the history of the British empire. It was the first major public discursive event of its kind in England, and arguably in Europe as a whole, in which the colonial ambitions and practices of European powers in the east stood exposed to a close and comprehensive critique. In addition, the legal and moral legitimacy of colonialism itself was thrown into question before the highest judicial body in Britain, the House of Lords. The fact that the prosecution was led by Edmund Burke, one of the most articulate and prescient political statesman of modern Europe, has only added to the trial's enduring significance as a moment of critical reflection on colonial practices. Indeed, it could be argued that it was on this occasion, and in this act of defending the rights of an alien population against coercive colonial rule, that some of Burke's long-held political and ethical convictions found their clearest expression.

The Dialectics of the Brazilian Military Regime's Political Trials

O Brasil tem um dos melhores arquivos de processos legais autoritários do mundo. O arquivo Brasil: Nunca Mais contém todos os processos políticos na justiça militar que recorreram ao Supremo Tribunal Militar entre 1964 e 1979, durante o regime militar. Este artigo usa documentos do arquivo para analisar a interação entre a lógica dos promotores, dos juízes, e dos advogados de defesa nos processos. O artigo enfatiza as contradições na área legal do regime militar, as inconsistências da justiça militar ao julgar o “crime” político de expressão de dissidência ou oposição, e a habilidade dos advogados de defesa em suavizar as aplicações mais severas das leis de segurança nacional.

Reviewing history in apocalyptic literature as ideological strategy

Reviews of history are ideological constructions. This article investigates historical reviews in the apocalyptic literature of Daniel and Ethiopic Enoch. In Daniel 2 a fourfold scheme of successive kingdoms/empires/eras is used to persuade the hearers that their political trials will come to an end. In Daniel 7 a theology of history is formulated in terms of animal symbols and four consecutive eras. This review is used to proclaim God’s total sovereignty over kings and kingdoms. The faithful can only wait with patience for God to bring history to its finalisation. In Enoch’s Apocalypse of the Weeks a historical review of humanity’s history is used to advocate the eschatological hope of the annihilation of sin and eternal vindication of righteousness. Summaries of history in the form of the traditional biblical history (1 Enoch 85-89) and an Animal Vision (1 Enoch 89-90) of seventy periods is used to appraise contemporary political-military events and advocate the reader’s participation in these actions as eschatological liberating events.

Theater in the Courtroom

In this article, the author situates the Chicago Conspiracy Trial in its historical context and explores its relevance to the jurisprudence of political trials and to theories of the theater. She begins by applying the theoretical framework of theater and contrasting two scenes from the trial. One falls into the category of rough theater, and the other into the category of deadly theater. There follows an analysis of the major scene of the first act, the binding and gagging of defendant Bobby Seale, and a scene close to the end of the trial when two defendants appeared in court wearing judicial robes. Finally, the article addresses how subsequent courts related to and reacted to these extraordinary events.

Four Histories for the Forthcoming Fourth Centenary of the King James Version, 1611-2011

FOUR HISTORIES FOR THE FORTHCOMING FOURTH CENTENARY OF THE KING JAMES VERSION, 1611-2011 The Bible in English: Its History and Influence. By David Daniell. (New Haven and London: Yale University Press. 2003. Pp. xx, 900. $40.00.) In Beginning: The Story of King James Bible and How It Changed Nation, Language, and Culture. By Alister McGrath. (New York: Random House. 2001 [hardbound]; Anchor Books. 2002. Pp. x, 338. $15.00 paperback.) Wide as Waters: The Story of English Bible and Revolution It Inspired. By Benson Bobrick. (New York: Simon & Schuster. 2001 [hardbound]; Penguin. 2002. Pp. 379,7. $14.00 paperback.) God's Secretaries: The Making of King James Bible. By Adam Nicholson. (New York: HarperCollins. 2003); Power and Glory: Jacobean England and Making of King James Bible (London: HarperCollins. 2003. Pp. xiv, 281. $24.95.) Perhaps because four-hundredth anniversary of King James Version (KJV) is approaching in 2011, there have recently been publications on English Bible by David Daniell, Alister McGrath, Benson Bobrick, and Adam Nicholson. Starting with best, I will make brief comments on their merits and then return to fuller examination of Daniell's Bible in English. David Daniell, emeritus professor of English, University College, London, was an eminent Shakespeare scholar before turning full-time to Bible. In last fifteen years, Daniell has edited modern-spelling versions of Tyndale's New Testament of 1534 (hardbound, 1989; paperback, 1995) and Tyndale's Old Testament (1992), and he has authored William Tyndale: A Biography (1994, hardbound; 2001, paperback). These publications, his own wide reading, and consultation with many other scholars enrich his survey of English Bible over thirteen centuries, from Caedmon's Hymn c.658 to New International Readers' Version of 1997. Alister McGrath, lecturer in Christian Doctrine and Ethics, Wycliffe Hall, Oxford, and Reformation scholar, is perhaps better qualified than Daniell to publish on Bible. McGrath studies two centuries, from first printed Bible of Johan Gutenberg in 1456 to restoration of Charles II in 1660. Although McGrath omits notes, he names his sources within text. He offers balanced judgments, describing NT Greek as of workplace and market and KJV English as reminiscent of the palaces of Westminster and high tables of Oxford and (p. 239). McGrath rightly praises Tyndale as a master of pithy phrase (p. 79). I would use this paperback in graduate study of Early Modern English literature or history. Benson Bobrick earned Ph.D. degree in English and Comparative Literature from Columbia University, and so he was taught how to write literary history. Bobrick covers three centuries from Wycliff (d. 1384), to Tyndale, Coverdale, James I, and Bunyan (d. 1688). Unlike McGrath, he gives notes, but they are often out of date, e.g., H. W. Hoare, Tbe Evolution of English Bible (1901) (pp. 149, 288); or secondhand, e.g., Thomas More quoted by Christopher Hill, The English Bible and Seventeenth-Century Revolution (1993) (p. 280). Even worse, Bobrick makes allegations without documentation; e.g., that Elizabeth tampered with juries in political trials (p. 270) or that Jesuit attempted to assassinate one of KJV translators (p. 228). A publisher and travel writer, Adam Nicholson treats brief period from accession of James I in 1603 to publication of KJV in 1611. Like McGrath, Nicholson incorporates his sources into text, but he is more chatty than analytical; e.g., he surrounds five pages on work of Second Cambridge Company of translators with seven pages on private life of their secretary John Bois (pp. 202-213). Nicholson appreciates Tyndale's plain and dignified language but holds that rich and resonate style of KJV was better suited to public reading in an established church (p. …

Transitional Injustice? Criteria for Conformity of Lustration to the Right to Political Expression

In order to promote democratic consolidation, countries undergoing the transition from repressive regimes often attempt to address past injustices and launch deep institutional reforms.1 These meas...

Confronting the Johnson Administration at War: The Trial of Dr. Spock and Use of the Courtroom to Effect Political Change

The Johnson administration's 1968 decision to indict Dr. Benjamin Spock and four others for conspiracy to aid and abet draft resisters thrilled the antiwar movement because it demonstrated that the government could no longer ignore the growing number of Americans opposed to the Vietnam War. In the months leading up to the trial, expectations ran high as the antiwar movement looked forward to a courtroom confrontation in which they hoped to see the government's policies put on trial. This article argues that the trial did not live up to its billing, however, because the defendants and their attorneys pursued both political and civil libertarian trial strategies that were, in practice, mutually exclusive. Although the trial disappointed the peace movement, its shortcomings warrant renewed attention for the lessons it offers those who again will seek a courtroom confrontation with their governments during wartime.

Öffentlichkeit und Rechtsprechung unter der frühen Sowjetmacht. Der Prozess gegen den JuŽnyj RaboČij in Odessa 1918

The trial against the editorial stuff of the Menshevik newspaper Juzhnyi Rabochii, which took place at Odessa's tribunal at the beginning of March 1918, was one of the first political trials under the new Soviet power. The trial not only contained a lot of theatrical elements, which made it appear like a revolutionary drama and which expressed the symbolic language of the revolution. The trial also showed the important role of Odessa's tribunal as public forum, where a newly formed public, consisting of members of the lower and middle stratum of the society, defended its right of freedom of speech and writing against the representatives of the local Soviet power. Comparing the Odessa trial with other early Soviet political trials it becomes evident that already in Lenin's lifetime the trials were changing from more or less independent public spaces towards a staging of public from above, used for propaganda means.

The First Soviet Political Trial: Countess Sofia Panina before the Petrograd Revolutionary Tribunal

The Bolshevik leadership had reason to expect that their first trial of a political opponent would be a success. The defendant was a wealthy aristocrat, a member of the Central Committee of the outlawed Constitutional Democratic (Kadet) party, and a vice minister in the Provisional Government. The unambiguous charge against her-taking and concealing government funds from the former Ministry of Education-would clearly demonstrate the moral bankruptcy of liberal leaders and further discredit the former government. A public trial would introduce the Bolsheviks' new instrument of revolutionary justice-the Revolutionary Tribunal of the Petrograd Soviet, created in late November 1917 and composed of ordinary workers and soldiers in conscious imitation of the French Revolution. From the perspective of her accusers, the likely guilty verdict against Countess Sofia Panina would show the world the superiority of Bolshevik justice and morality, and the legitimacy of their seizure of power. To the Kadets, the trial of a woman widely respected for her progressive philanthropy held equally great significance as an event that would demonstrate the illegitimacy of Bolshevik rule and their violation of the most fundamental norms of justice. The actual proceedings that took place on 10 December 1917 yielded no unequivocal triumphs, however. The trial took several surprising turns, and its ambiguous outcome enabled both supporters and opponents of the defendant to declare victory and draw different lessons. Attracting national and international attention at the time, the trial is often mentioned briefly in histories of the Revolution.1 It has received somewhat more attention

Law and Society under a Democratic Dictatorship: Dr. Banda and Malawi

The regime of Dr. Banda in Malawi was characterized by various methods of social control, but an appeal to tradition was one source of legitimacy. The concept of authoritarian populism can be applied. The principal means of law enforcement was through operation of the courts. These were developed from precolonial systems and were modified during the British period. They administer justice without due regard to technicalities, and rules of evidence are less strict than in the Western-type system. Under Banda, their scope was extended. The Western-type system also operated but its scope was diminished and Banda felt free to interfere. Workings of traditional courts could be problematic particularly in view of Dr. Banda's interpretation of tradition and the use of them for political trials. But abolition could also prove problematic, and they still operate in a watered-down form. Issues are raised about the cross-cultural applicability of human rights.

Reconstructing atrocity: How torturers, murderers, and researchers deconstruct labels and manage secrecy

In countries undergoing democratization after military dictatorships--as throughout Latin America in the last fifteen years, where torture and murder had been systematic government practices--the processes of forgetting and remembering have both political and personal dimensions. Those who have variously experienced an authoritarian past can reconstruct it in very different ways. How a country's transitional politics undertake to deal with these painful memories can influence whether torturers and murderers receive blanket amnesty, make some general public acknowledgment of their acts, submit individually to a Truth and Reconciliation Commission inquiry, or undergo judicial trial. Each of these courses of action shapes personal and political healing differently depending on the experiences of participants. For example, amnesty for those in violent security forces may demoralize victims of human rights abuses even while providing a political bargain that promotes transfer to civilian rule and even overall political stabilization, at least for a while. This trade-off may suppress efforts to resurrect victims' memories of their abuse, while those who have perpetrated violence may also repress their memories all the more deeply to avoid the possibility that they and their families will become victims of their victims. On the other hand, political trials or any public discussion of wrongdoing by perpetrators of state-sanctioned violence may foster victims' healing, but block the accused's political participation in the new regime. Even confessions before investigation and amnesty commissions may not lead, as hoped, to the transformation of perpetrators into respectable and respectful participants in a more democratic system.

Daniel J Kevles, The Baltimore case: a trial ofpolitics, science, and character, New York and London, WW Norton, 1998, pp. 509, illus., £21.00 (hardback 0-393-04103-4).

Daniel J Kevles W W Norton, £21, pp 448 ISBN 0393041034 Rating: ![Graphic][1] ![Graphic][2] ![Graphic][3] ![Graphic][4] The story would make a marvellous soap opera. The research, into immunological genetics and published in Cell , is complex, made worse by the inadequate English of Teresa Imanishi-Kari, the Brazilian-Japanese research worker. Accused of fraud, she is defended by her charismatic but hubristic boss, the Nobel laureate David Baltimore, who takes on a congressional committee. The whistleblower, Margot O'Toole, a young Irish radical, loses her job, house, and career—but receives international honours and publicity for her courage. After 10 years and seven inquiries, reviews, and the final, successful, appeal, the US immunological establishment has disagreed about guilt or innocence, and even the secret service has examined the research … [1]: /embed/inline-graphic-1.gif [2]: /embed/inline-graphic-2.gif [3]: /embed/inline-graphic-3.gif [4]: /embed/inline-graphic-4.gif

Judge, Jury, Magistrate and Soldier: Rethinking Law and Authority in Late Eighteenth-Century Ireland

The key to understanding law and authority in late eighteenth-century Ireland lies in extraordinary cases. Some historians have dismissed the political trials of reformers and activists as unrepresentative of the typical processes of the Irish judicial system. They argue that the majority of Irishmen in the eighteenth century did not believe that their society was particularly violent and that the disenfranchised Catholic majority fared as well as its Protestant counterpart before the law. Criminals were caught, charged by a grand jury composed of local men, and tried by a jury before any sentence was carried out. From constables to judges of the assizes, Ireland retained the institutional forms characteristic of the English system. These historians argue that the majority of cases, in which strict adherence to legal procedure was carried out in the spirit of a self-policing society, overshadows the few exceptions. However, these extraordinary cases, which dealt not with common criminals, but with reformers advocating constitutional and social change, demonstrate that when the system was under the greatest strain, commitment to English ideals broke down.1 The external parallels between the Irish and English systems obscured fundamental differences, differences that corresponded to Ireland's different political and legal reality. The history of Ireland, with its centuries of unrest and rebellion, and with its social divisions along lines corresponding to economic and religious differences, precluded English legal traditions from being transplanted without alteration. The political climate of late eighteenth-century Ireland was one of mounting tension. The beginning of the eighteenth century was marked by a period of relative peace and stability. However, by the middle of the century, popular protests, like the Whiteboys violence in the 1760s, demanded economic and political change, but seemed to government officials and local gentry to promise only chaos.2 During the last few decades of the eighteenth century, new manifestations of popular protest emerged

The Baltimore Case: A Trial of Politics, Science, and Character. Daniel J. Kevles

Previous articleNext article No AccessNew Biological BooksThe Baltimore Case: A Trial of Politics, Science, and Character. Daniel J. Kevles Alfred I. TauberAlfred I. Tauber Search for more articles by this author PDFPDF PLUS Add to favoritesDownload CitationTrack CitationsPermissionsReprints Share onFacebookTwitterLinkedInRedditEmail SectionsMoreDetailsFiguresReferencesCited by The Quarterly Review of Biology Volume 75, Number 1Mar., 2000 Published in association with Stony Brook University Article DOIhttps://doi.org/10.1086/393258 Copyright 2000 The University of ChicagoPDF download Crossref reports no articles citing this article.

Legacies of Authoritarianism

In countries undergoing redemocratization, as throughout Latin America, where torture and murder were systematic government practices, remembering and forgetting have a as well as a personal dimension. How an authoritarian past is reconstructed by those who experienced it can influence whether past torturers and murderers receive blanket amnesty or submit to a trial with possible civil and criminal punishment or the scrutiny of a Truth and Reconciliation Commission or some other public acknowledgment of their acts. Each course of action shapes personal and healing among participants in a particular way. Amnesty for those in violent security forces may demoralize their victims while providing a political bargain that promotes overall stabilization, at least for a while. Political trials may foster victims' healing but undermine the perpetrators' transformation and public acknowledgment of their wrongdoing: seeing trials as threatening, perpetrators may reject self-criticism and go more deeply underground to avoid their and their families' becoming victims. This outcome may have an impact on social memory by keeping information about the character of repressive regimes from becoming public history. This in turn may hinder transformation, since, as Walter Benjamin (1968) has argued, what becomes collective memory can promote or inhibit collective resistance to oppression and transformation toward democracy. How does a country remember its violent past? This study attempts to reconstruct Brazilian historical memory of the military regime's security forces through interviews with police about the torture and murder they

The Baltimore Case: A Trial of Politics, Science, and Character

The Baltimore Case: A Trial of Politics, Science, and Character

Iran's New Revolution

A generation after it seized power, Iran's revolutionary regime is deeply troubled: fractured by intense political divisions, endangered by economic disorder, discredited by rampant corruption, and smothered in social restrictions no longer acceptable to large sectors of its changing population. To the outside world the Islamic Repub lic of Iran often appears to be at a precipice, its unique theocratic government on the verge of imploding from internal tensions. Over the past year, its domestic drama has played out visibly, and sometimes violently, in killings by a rogue death squad, newspaper closures, student unrest, political trials, local elections, charges of espionage against the Jewish minority, and as always, relations with the United States.

Michael Lobban, White Man's Justice: South African Political Trials in the Black Consciousness Era, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1996. Pp. ix + 288. Price $65.00 (ISBN 0–19–825809–7).

Michael Lobban, White Man's Justice: South African Political Trials in the Black Consciousness Era, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1996. Pp. ix + 288. Price $65.00 (ISBN 0–19–825809–7). - Volume 18 Issue 2

Not Proven: Truth by Exhaustion in the Baltimore CaseThe Baltimore Case: A Trial of Politics, Science, and Character. Daniel J. Kevles

Not Proven: Truth by Exhaustion in the Baltimore CaseThe Baltimore Case: A Trial of Politics, Science, and Character. Daniel J. Kevles

Political Trials under Alexander the Great and his Successors

In 1931 F. Granier argued that treason trials and other matters of major political importance were heard by meetings of the Macedonian army assembly and this view received wide acceptance. However in the 1970s it was challenged by R. Lock and R.M. Errington, who concluded that there was no right of the army to be consulted in such cases, but that the king might seek to win the troops' approval before undertaking controversial actions, such as executing popular officers. More recently, N.G.L. Hammond has revived the view that the Macedonian army had the right to hold trials in cases of treason.