Peace (law)
The legal term peace, sometimes king's peace (
The concept of the king's peace originated in
In modern Britain, the
In English law
Development in common law
Anglo-Saxon origins
The notion of "king's peace" originates in
Over time, the notion of king's peace expanded,
Following the Norman Conquest
Following the
A breach of the king's peace could be either a crime or a
The Charter of Henry I, issued upon Henry's coronation in 1100, stated: "I establish a lasting peace throughout the whole of my kingdom and command that it henceforth be maintained."[3] Historian John Hudson had commented that Henry I's cornational declaration of peace was non-specific, but did emphasize "the association of both the ideals and the practical enforcement of good order with firm kingship" as characterized by, among other things, an expansion of royal judicial activity.[4] Hudson writes: "Thus the later precise legal notion of the king's peace may have developed more from ideas of the general king's peace, as manifest perhaps in shrieval grants and Henry's coronation decree, than from specific grants of royal protection."[4]
The
Law of homicide
In traditional common law, a killing of a human was a murder only if the victim was "under the king's peace" (i.e., not an outlaw or an enemy soldier in wartime).[11][12] This was predicated on the notion that, because the outlaw lived outside the king's peace, the king would not punish offenses against the outlaw.[12][b]
Historically, even
Modern day
Today, the preservation of the King's Peace is the major responsibility of
In the controversial decision in
Breach of the peace
In modern English law, a breach of the peace is not itself a crime.[23][24][c] However, "where a breach of the peace has been committed or, alternatively, where such a breach is reasonably believed to be imminent, a police officer, or for that matter a member of the public, has the power at common law to arrest without warrant the individual or individuals who have either committed or are about to commit that breach of the peace even though no offence has actually been committed."[24] This is a form of preventive arrest.[24][25] Under the Magistrates' Courts Act 1980, a magistrate has the power to "bind over" a person to keep the peace (i.e., to forfeit a sum of money upon a subsequent breach of the peace), and "refusal to be bound over to keep the peace is an offence in English law, punishable by up to six months' imprisonment."[25] Moreover, the obstruction of an officer engaged in preventing a breach of the peace is a criminal offence.[23]
The case R v Howell (1981) defined breach of the peace as "harm ... actually done or likely to be done to a person or, in his presence, his property or is put in fear of being harmed through an assault, affray, riot, unlawful assembly or other disturbance."[23] In the 1998 case of Steel v UK, the European Court of Human Rights decided that this was a lawful restriction of the freedom of assembly under Article 5 and Article 11 of the European Convention on Human Rights.[23]
Medieval Scotland
Unlike medieval England, there is no strong evidence "for a strong conceptual and ideological royal peace" concept in
Outside Britain
American law
After the
Australian law
As a common-law nation, the notion of "breach of the Queen's peace" endures in Australia.
Significance in historiography and history of crime
The concept of the king's peace is significant in the
See also
- History of the courts of England and Wales
- Peace of God
- Peacekeeping
- Vi et armis
- Verge (royal court)
Notes
- ^ In contrast to sureties of the peace, the separate device of sureties of good behavior began "as a form of conditional pardon given by the king to malefactors"; Feldman writes that sureties of good behavior were "a special exercise of the king's power, not related to any national legal duty like preserving the peace."[5]
- Bracton stated that outlaws could be restored to "the peace" solely by the grace of the king.[13]
- ^ In contrast, breach of the peace is a crime in Scots law.[25]
References
- ^ a b Black's Law Dictionary (10th ed.: ed. Bryan A. Garner: Thomson Reuters, 2014), p. 1306.
- ^ a b c d e f g Markus Dirk Dubber, The Police Power: Patriarchy and the Foundations of American Government (Columbia University Press, 2005), pp. 15–16.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i Bruce R. O'Brien, God's Peace and King's Peace: The Laws of Edward the Confessor, pp. 73–74.
- ^ a b c d e f John Hudson, The Oxford History of the Laws of England, Vol. 2 (Oxford University Press, 2012), pp. 386–88.
- ^ S2CID 145431316.
- ^ William Stubbs, The Constitutional History of England, in Its Origin and Development, Vol. 1 (1875: Cambridge University Press compilation, 2011), p. 182.
- ^ Clifford Shearing & Phillip Stenning, "The Privatization of Security: Implications for Democracy" in Routledge Handbook of Private Security Studies (eds. Rita Abrahamsen & Anna Leander: Routledge, 2016), pp. 140–41.
- ^ B.U. L. Rev.59 (1996).
- ^ Feldman, p. 102.
- ^ James Fitzjames Stephen, A History of the Criminal Law of England (1883: Cambridge University Press compilation, 2014), p. 185.
- ^ R.A. Duff, Answering for Crime: Responsibility and Liability in the Criminal Law (Hart, 2007), p. 212.
- ^ a b Malcolm Thorburn, "Punishment and Public Authority" in Criminal Law and the Authority of the State (eds. Antje du Bois-Pedain, Magnus Ulväng & Petter Asp: Hart, 2017), p. 24.
- ^ a b c Alice Taylor, The Shape of the State in Medieval Scotland, 1124–1290 (Oxford University Press, 2016), p. 165.
- ^ Markus Dubber & Tatjana Hörnle, Criminal Law: A Comparative Approach (Oxford University Press, 2014), p. 524.
- ^ Alan Norrie, Crime, Reason and History: A Critical Introduction to Criminal Law (3d ed: Cambridge University Press, 2014), p. 301.
- ^ a b c d Markus D. Dubber, "Histories of Crime and Criminal Justices and the Historical Analysis of Criminal Law" in The Oxford Handbook of the History of Crime and Criminal Justice (eds. Paul Knepper & Anja Johansen: Oxford University Press, 2016), p. 605.
- ^ Police Accountability and Control Over the Police, Bramshill Journal, Vol. 1 (Autumn 1979), pp. 9–14.
- ^ Nick Tilley & Gloria Laycock, "The Police As Professional Problem Solvers" in The Future of Policing (ed. Jennifer M. Brown: Routledge, 2014), p. 369.
- ^ Michael S. Pike, The Principles of Policing (Macmillan Press, 1985), pp. 36, 139.
- ^ a b Police Foundation's John Harris Memorial Lecture, Drapers Hall, London (7 July 2011).
- ^ Andrew Le Sueur, Maurice Sunkin & Jo Eric Khushal Murkens, Public Law: Text, Cases, and Materials (2d ed.: Oxford University Press, 2013), pp. 348–50.
- ^ a b c d Orsolya Salát, The Right to Freedom of Assembly: A Comparative Study (Hart, 2015, pp. 121–24).
- ^ a b c David Pollard, Neil Parpworth & David Hughes, Constitutional and Administrative Law: Text with Materials (4th ed.: Oxford University Press, 2007), pp. 637–40.
- ^ a b c Colin Turpin & Adam Tomkins, British Government and the Constitution: Text and Materials (7th ed.: Cambridge University Press, 2011), p. 823.
- JSTOR 27867575.
- ^ a b Philip Carlan, Lisa S. Nored & Ragan A. Downey, An Introduction to Criminal Law (Jones & Bartlett, 2011), p. 128.
- ^ Lipohar v R (1999) 200 CLR 485 (judgment by Gleeson CJ).
- ^ Lipohar v R (1999) 200 CLR 485 (judgment by Gaudron J; Gummow J; Hayne J).