The Mid-Victorian Codification of the Practice of Public Prosecution

Abstract

The Book of Regulations of 1868 seems to have been the first comprehensive and printed collection of administrative instructions of general application from crown counsel in crown office, as representatives of centralised government, for implementation by procurators fiscal in the sheriff courts. The latter, acting locally, were engaged in the actual investigation of crime within the Scottish system of public prosecution. The comprehensive contents of the book, a benchmark in its own right, established the mode of investigating serious crime and reporting it for consideration for prosecution, and brought up to date a collection of relevant statutory authorities without subsuming or compromising Scottish autonomy in these matters, nor any closer association with comparable institutions in England.