Six Centuries of Criminal Law -- Copyright -- Contents -- List of Tables -- 1. Introduction -- 1. A History of Criminal Law -- 2 The 'Grand' Theories Explaining the History of Criminal Law -- 2.1 The Importance and Basic Principles of the Different Theories -- 2.2 The Rationalistic Theories -- 2.3 The Germanic School -- 2.4 The Theories of Force or Power -- 2.5 The Civilisation Theories -- 2. The Sources of Criminal Law -- 1. The Local Legal Rules in the Fifteenth to Eighteenth Centuries -- 2 The Monarchical Decrees of the Fifteenth to the Eighteenth Centuries -- 3 The Administration of Justice, Legal Doctrine and Roman Law before the French Revolution -- 4 Criminal Law in the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries -- 4.1 The 'Cahiers de doléance' in 1788-1789 -- 4.2 The First Reforms of Criminal Law (1789-1791) -- 4.3 Criminal Law in 1791 -- 4.4 The Subsequent Criminal Law between 1791 and 1808 -- 4.5 Old Wine in New Bottles. The 'Code d'instruction criminelle' (1808) and the 'Code pénal' (1810) -- 4.6 A Variation on a Variation. The Belgian Penal Code of 1867 -- 4.7 From 'Homo Economicus' to 'Homo Criminalis' and 'Homo Sociologicus' -- 3. Criminal Justice -- 1 From Private to Public Criminal Law -- 1.1 Right of Revenge and Family Solidarity before the Eleventh Century -- 1.2 Developing a Public Criminal Law from the Eleventh Century Onwards -- 1.3 A Fully Fledged Public Criminal Law from 1500 Onwards -- 2 Criminal Judges (Un)restrained by Criminal Law -- 2.1 A Formulation of the Problem -- 2.2 The Ascendancy of the Judge -- 2.3 The Ascendancy of the Legislator -- 2.4 Towards a Balance between Legislator and Judge -- 3 The Apparatus of Criminal Law in the Southern Netherlands -- 3.1 Introduction -- 3.2 The Ordinary Courts -- 3.3 The Extraordinary Courts.

3.4 Ecclesiastical Administration of Criminal Justice -- 4 The Apparatus of Criminal Law after the French Revolution -- 4.1 Judicial Reforms Until 1795 -- 4.2 Judicial Reforms under the Directory, the Consulate and the Empire (1796-1815) -- 4.3 The Apparatus of Criminal Law under Dutch and Belgian Rule -- 4. The Offences in General -- 1 Punishable Behaviour -- 1.1 Human Behaviour? -- 1.2 Acts of Commission, Acts of Omission and Acts of Commission by Omission -- 2 Criminal Guilt -- 2.1 The Concept of Criminal Guilt -- 2.2 Criminal Accountability -- 2.3 Criminal Culpability -- 3 The Punishable Attempt -- 3.1 The Concept and Introduction of the Punishable Attempt -- 3.2 The Incomplete Attempt -- 3.3 The Completed Attempt -- 4 Punishable Participation -- 4.1 The Concept and Types of Punishable Participation -- 4.2 Participation by Giving Permission -- 4.3 Participation by Giving Advice -- 4.4 Participation by Giving a Mandate -- 4.5 Participation by Giving an Order -- 4.6 Participation by Giving Help -- 5 Grounds for Exemption from Punishment -- 5.1 The Concept of Exemption and the Classification of the Grounds for Exemption from Punishment -- 5.2 Order of Law and Command of Authority -- 5.3 Self-defence and Defence of Someone Else -- 5.4 Necessity -- 5.5 Insanity and Related Circumstances -- 5.6 Duress or Force Majeure -- 5.7 Mistake of Law and Mistake of Fact -- 5.8 Minority -- 5. The Punishments -- 1 The Functions of Punishment -- 1.1 Retribution -- 1.2 Deterrence -- 1.3 The Reformation of the Offender -- 1.4 Societal Protection or Incapacitation -- 2 The Different Punishments -- 2.1 Punishments in the Late Middle Ages and the Modern Era -- 2.2. Punishments since the French Revolution -- 3 The Ultimate Sanction: The Death Penalty Through Six Centuries -- 3.1 In the Name of God -- 3.2 The Death Penalty Questioned.

3.3 Off with Their Heads -- 3.4 Pro and Contra the Death Penalty in the Middle of the Nineteenth Century -- 3.5 The Tempered Death Penalty -- 3.6 The Death Penalty in the Belgian Parliament between 1830 and 1867 -- 3.7 The Caged Death Penalty (1867-1914) -- 3.8 Bullets for Traitors (1914-1950) -- 3.9 Towards a Legal, Constitutional Abolition of the Death Penalty -- 3.10 Concluding Summary -- 6. Some Offences and Their Punishments in Particular -- 1 'Dragged, Hung and Buried Like an Animal': The Punishment for Suicide between the Fourteenth and Eighteenth Centuries -- 1.1 The Criminalisation of Suicide between the Fourteenth and the Eighteenth Centuries -- 1.2 The Jurisprudential Turn in the Eighteenth Century -- 1.3 The Duermael Case and the Legal Decriminalisation of Suicide -- 1.4 The Influence of the Enlightened Thinkers -- 1.5 The Secularisation of Insanity -- 1.6 The Concealment of Death -- 1.7 The 'Privatisation' of the Legal Punishment -- 2 On the Razzle with the Devil: Witch Trials in Europe and Flanders -- 2.1 The Definition of a Witch Trial -- 2.2 The Chronology and Geography of the Witch Trials -- 2.3 Witch Trials: Women's Trials? -- 2.4 Looking for an Explanation -- 2.5 The Witch Trials in Olsene-Dentergem -- 3 The Press on Trial: Press Offences in the Young Belgian State -- 3.1 Measures Controlling the Press Before 1830 -- 3.2 The Belgian Press Legislation in a Nutshell -- 3.3 Long Live Belgium! -- 3.4 Democracy, Preferably with a Small 'd' -- 3.5 Do Not Speak (or Write) Ill of the Church -- 3.6 Concerning Vulgar Pictures and Salacious Texts -- 3.7 Personal Revenge and Other Dirty Linen -- 3.8 Monarchs Were Quick to Take Offence.

4 A State in Transition: The Punishment of Collaboration with the Enemy during and After the First World War -- 4.1 The Notion of Collaboration with the Enemy and Its Legal Bases -- 4.2 The Authority to Make Judgements on Collaboration -- 4.3 Transitional Justice? -- 7. The Administration of Criminal Justice -- 1 The Administration of Criminal Justice between the Sixteenth and the Eighteenth Centurie -- 1.1 The Civil Claim Issuing from an Offence -- 1.2 The Civil and Criminal Procedures in Criminal Cases -- 1.3 The Course of a Criminal Trial -- 2 Criminal Procedure since the French Revolution -- Selective Bibliography -- Index of Persons -- Index of Places -- Subject Index.