The Origins of the lnstitutionalised Guilty Plea in the United States: Sorne Lessons from History

Abstract

In this lecture, I want to talk about the origins of the modern system of criminal justice in the United States of America. In particular, I will discuss how it was transformed in the nineteenth century from one in which the routine method of case disposal was by means of a jury trial to one in which, by 1860, the guilty plea was dominant. One of the purposes of my talk is to explain how this fundamental transformation came about. This, however, is of lesser significance than a second objective: to show the importance of theory, of historical method, and of the value of "law in context" as a method of analyzing law. It is appropriate that "law in context" should be given its proper recognition because it has been the foundation stone and lasting achievement of the School of Law at Warwick, which pioneered this approach to legal studies some 25 years ago.