Based on extensive original research, this book examines the evolution of the criminal justice system in the self-governing British Channel Island of Guernsey over a period of 250 years. It is the first scholarly treatment of this subject in a Guernsey context, and it is aimed at academic audiences in the United Kingdom, Europe, North America and Australasia, as well as at a general Channel Island audience.

Guernsey had its own distinctive legal system and was not subject to the Westminster parliament. During the period between the 1680s and 1920s, its criminal justice system nevertheless changed from one based on the Norman Coutume and French criminal practice to one more akin to that of England and Wales. In parallel, the system also changed from what was primarily a dispute-resolution service for individuals into a tool for the management of the community at large. This book chronicles both of these processes from various angles, charting successive transformations in legislation and procedure, as well as landmark developments in policing and penal practices. In addition to chronicling these changes, the book contextualises them by examining broader transformations in local society and developments in justice systems elsewhere. It also illustrates them with a series of case studies encompassing crimes from murder to petty theft. In foregrounding the lived experience of those who came into contact with the system, these studies add a useful human dimension to the book’s technical content.