S.Yu. Khatunov. Homicide in Medieval England

Abstract: It is hard to understand English criminal law both now and always without examination into history of crime of homicide as the part of history of criminal law. And so in his article the author examines crime of homicide in the course of making law from Law of Aethelbert to fourteenth-century statutes. In the article’s beginning author analyzes the provisions of Anglo-Saxon and Anglo-Norman laws generally including laws of Alfred and Leges Henrici Primi. Relying on history of criminal law author underlines that there was a birth of basic and essential elements of crime of homicide in the early medieval England. In particular, it was “diffinicio homicidii” which included circumstances of the case and the person involved, as well as division between murder and manslaughter. The article contains the studies of Bracton’s fundamental ideas on homicide he established in his tractate as a new doctrine. Bracton’s doctrine is the main subject to consideration, and its analysis takes the significant part of the article, inasmuch as it is the main medieval source of crime of homicide. The article underlines that this doctrine contains following basic elements: the regard homicide as a crime, type of homicide, relation between sentencing decision and degree of guilt, aggravation and extenuation, and release from punishment and liability. The author underlines that the Bracton contributed greatly to the English law with his doctrine of homicide and a number of other doctrinals which later became integral to the English common law. Later tractates Fleta, Britton, and Mirror of Justice failed to update Bracton’s one. Their epigonous spirit was shown up in comparative analysis by which there was found out what is unique and what is the same in these tractates and Bracton’s one. The reigning feature of thirteenth- and fourteenth-century tractates is their authors had quoted clauses of the statutes. The author clears up the state of the determination of guilt in thirteenthand fourteenth-century England. In this case it is very important to specify the wide range of synonymous terms in determination of guilt and its degree. It is clearly shown by statutes and particular criminal cases in which there was made the attempts to re-state common law, keep it current, and elaborate it on. Furthermore, author reviews the abuse of pardon. Inasmuch as the purchase charters of pardon was largely correlate with possibilities to take fees to the Crown in accordance with chattels of accused of homicide, therefore the abuse of charters of pardon for accused of homicide had come to the end of its tether in fourteenth century, and this required permanent policymaking, because of continuous stream of petitions to the kings and parliament declaration by statutes of that problem seemed to be unsolvable.