Zealous Advocates: The historical foundations of the adversarial criminal defence lawyer

Abstract

The place of the criminal defence lawyer in the modern criminal justice system is a given; everysuspect and defendant expects full representation as a right. However, the defence lawyer appeared surprisingly late in the long and venerable history of the English and Welsh legal system. Notwithstanding the defence lawyer's role as advocate for the accused, this unique professional role involves a variety of duties and obligations. This article will focus on the historical development of these core 'principles' of criminal defence as well as the expansion of the role in the general context of adversarialism