Zealous Advocates: The Historical Foundations of the Adversarial Criminal Defence Lawyer

Authors

Tom Smith, University of Plymouth

Document Type

Article

Abstract

The place of the criminal defence lawyer in the modern criminal justice system is a given; every suspect and defendant expects full representation as a right. However, the defence lawyer appeared surprisingly late in the long and venerable history of the English and Welsh legal system. Notwithstanding the defence lawyer‟s role as advocate for the accused, this unique professional role involves a variety of duties and obligations. This article will focus on the historical development of these core „principles‟ of criminal defence as well as the expansion of the role in the general context of adversarialism.

Publication Date

2012-01-01

Publication Title

SOLON Law, Crime and History

Volume

2

Issue

1

First Page

1

Last Page

20

ISSN

1754-0445

Embargo Period

2024-10-21

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

Recommended Citation

Smith, Tom (2012) "Zealous Advocates: The Historical Foundations of the Adversarial Criminal Defence Lawyer," SOLON Law, Crime and History (previously SOLON Crimes and Misdemeanours: Deviance and the Law in Historical Perspective): Vol. 2: Iss. 1, Article 3.
Available at: https://pearl.plymouth.ac.uk/solon/vol2/iss1/3