Requiem for the ‘people’s judge’

Jack Straw has finally got his wish: despite valiant efforts in the Lords, his Coroners and Justice Act has castrated one of our most ancient and overlooked institutions. Why? Because the ‘people’s judge’ was just too good at winkling out inconvenient truths.

The office of coroner has existed in this kingdom since the year 1194. The medieval version was chiefly concerned with the protection of Crown revenue and determining responsibility for violent deaths as a means of raising fines. But seven centuries of gradual evolution resulted in a coroner rather more concerned with the welfare of the public.

The modern incarnation emerged in the Victorian era when large numbers of deaths were being caused by novel hazards such as factory and train accidents. The coroner called those responsible to account and sought to prevent similar occurrences in future. In those more enlightened times, coroners were elected: in 1826, rival candidates for a jurisdiction in the East Riding brought nearly 2,000 freeholders to the Castle Yard at York for the vote.