Crime, Criminal Justice, and the Jury Courts in Late Republican Rome

During the early Roman Republican era, serious crimes came under the jurisdiction of the assemblies of the Roman people (comitia), which, when acting as popular courts, were referred to as iudicia populi. In the course of time, however, it became common for the assemblies to delegate their judicial powers to specially appointed commissions, which acted as extraordinary courts (quaestiones extraordinariae) charged with the investigation and punishment of certain crimes. During the period of Rome’s expansion in the Mediterranean world, as the city’s population increased and various forms of crime proliferated, standing jury courts (quaestiones perpetuae) began to be established for trying those accused of common offences. The present paper traces the development of the Roman standing court system in its social and political setting, presenting information on guiding principles, procedures and goals and identifying some of the problems hampering its operation. It is submitted that, despite its shortcomings, the system did achieve a more efficient dispensation of justice and introduced new elements that fundamentally affected the subsequent development of the criminal law.