Conceptions of justice, 1770-1870

This research project explores the normative content of justice within the courts of eighteenth- and nineteenth-century England. The project involves analysis of the discourse and practice of national and local courts of England to explore ways in which justice was used to reach decisions. By doing so, it has been possible to illustrate that the invocation of justice in legal discourse was a means of advancing an array of other values that were themselves in tension and that ‘justice’ was therefore a flexible and, ultimately, fluid concept, that obscured as well as enabled decisions based on those other values. The project suggests that an understanding of justice as consisting of such a package of frequently conflicting values can deepen both understanding and critique of judicial practice.