THE COURTROOM, LAWYERS AND THE PRESS:
NEGOTIATING JUSTICE IN THE AGE OF THE
PUBLIC SPHERE
Investigator(s):
Dr Michael Davis (University of Tasmania)
Professor David Lemmings (University of Adelaide)
Project Summary:
The modern Anglo-American trial is formal and solemn, dominated as it is by
lawyers, and invested with the majesty of the state. This was not the case in early
modern England, when lawyers were not always involved and ordinary people
were less deferential. This project takes an original perspective on a key period of
transition in British legal history when the modern culture of the lawyerised trial
decisively took shape. It hypothesises that the intervention of lawyers and the
concurrent rise of the press largely displaced lay participation in trials and
relocated popular criticism of justice to the public sphere.
Funding:
Australian Research Council (Project ID: DP0774643)