Crime and justice in Europe : periodicals and newspapers from the British Library

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Summary

This collection contains an international selection of periodicals and newspapers related to criminal law from 1800 to 1923. A centerpiece of the collection is the combative Venetian journal L'Eco ...

This collection contains an international selection of periodicals and newspapers related to criminal law from 1800 to 1923. A centerpiece of the collection is the combative Venetian journal L'Eco dei Tribunali (The Echo of the Courts), published from 1850 to 1876. The journal was a powerful advocate for liberal reform of the criminal law. In the wake of the Italian Revolutions of 1848, it aimed to educate a class of legal professionals able to negotiate the challenges of change and to inform public opinion. Its publisher was Paride Zajotti, whose father was one of the pillars of the Italian judiciary under Austrian Rule. L'Eco dei Tribunali regularly pointed out the excesses of state prosecutors and judges. Observers commented that it fecero stringere i nervi (shook to the nerves) establishment officials. On a more practical level, L'Eco dei Tribunali published important work on the draft reform of the penal and civil codes and compared existing and proposed Italian laws with those of other nations. The journal was a strong advocate for the liberal principles established in the Constitution for Criminal Justice in 1849. It called for public trials and the introduction of juries at a time when those were not allowed by the Austrian Code. But L'Eco dei Tribunali did not only concern itself with laws and abstract theories. It published statistics from criminal trials in Venice and studies of specific crimes such as prostitution. It was a stringent advocate for reform of Venetian and Italian prisons. It published items on forensic medicine. It commented on the establishment of new courts and judicial districts. Thus, the journal contains a wealth of practical information in addition to its status as a player in the reform of Italian criminal law.

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