Citation

Porret M. Revue d'Histoire des Sciences Humaines 2010; 22(1): 37-60.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2010)

DOI

10.3917/rhsh.022.0037

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

Under the Ancien Régime, the forensic medicine of the wounded or death body is regulated by numerous laws. The practice of the sworn experts (stout women, surgeons, doctors) marks the criminal justice. On the judicial stage, on that of the suicide, the experts diagnose positively the physical violence in numerous protocols of criminal investigation. So, they make objective all the material circumstances of the crime. Therefore, before the period of legality of the offences and the punishments (1791), the arbitrary power is guided by the stake in proof of the raped body which arouses a forensic case law.

Language: fr

Keywords

Expertise; Corpses; Arbitrary power; Body injured (wounded); Crime (murder); Expert; Legality