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- Title
Ordinamenti formali e pratiche di polizia nell'india britannica (1817-1882).
- Authors
ABBATE, GIULIO
- Abstract
One of the most distinguishing features of the British Legal System consists in the absence of torture from the common law tradition. However, since the beginnings of the Nineteenth century native subjects of the main British colony, India, had denounce a massive and illegal use of torture by Colonial Police in criminal proceedings. According to the East India Company, torture was a consolidated and traditional practice in India and this alone was sufficient to explain its widespread incidence in judicial practice. Official discourse about torture was a powerful one, touching numerous stereotypes about the Native Indians. But the analysis of colonial documents discovered a far more complex situation: the use of violence in criminal proceedings was largely tolerated by colonial administration because it was instrumental to the operation of the criminal justice system, quite essential to the maintenance of law and order and to the imposition of particular models of behaviour. Analyzing colonial debate of the period 1860-1880 about police force and powers (especially relating to the Bengal territories) this article aims to show how the presence of torture in the 19th century colonial India was strongly related to the Colonial System of government and how the need to fight this phenomenon was always balanced with the key importance of controlling the rural areas of Indian Presidencies, administering the criminal justice, disciplining native subjects. Together with these issues, the article aims to show the difficulties encountered by the Colonial Government in the elaboration of a model of criminal process that was compatible with common law tradition and the attempts of English jurists to justify even the most particular features of Colonial System of Criminal Procedure.
- Subjects
UNITED Kingdom; INDIA; HISTORY of colonial law; 19TH century British colonial administration; BRITISH occupation of India, 1765-1947; COMMON law; HISTORY of torture; POLICE; EAST India Co. -- History -- 19th century; HISTORY
- Publication
Journal of Constitutional History / Giornale di Storia Costituzionale, 2013, Issue 25, p35
- ISSN
1593-0793
- Publication type
Article