Staunforde - Definition - Law Dictionary Home Dictionary Definition staunforde

Definition :

Staunforde, the author of the Pleas of the Crown, in the reign of Philip and Mary. This book is written in French; the method of it is perspicacious, and the matter disposed with learning and accuracy. The author is uncommonly full in his quotations, the statutes are generally given at length, and whole pages are frequently transcribed from Bracton. This is in general done with success and propriety, though sometimes his author has failed him; as, among other instances, may be observed Bracton's definition of larceny, which was not law at the time Staunforde wrote.

As Staunforde has the praise of being our earliest writer on pleas of the Crown, so has his merit been acknowledged by those who have followed him in the same walk, they having, in general, adhered to the arrangement and divisions of his work. He treats of his subject under three heads: first, of crimes; next, of the method of bringing delinquents of justice; and lastly, of trials and punishment. The several titles into which these are subdivided have furnished the heads of nearly every book which has been written since his time on the same subject, 4 Reeves, 564.