Ashford v. Thornton was an 1818 English
legal caseA legal case is a dispute between opposing parties resolved by a court, or by some equivalent legal process. A legal case may be either civil or criminal...
standing for the principle that all law remains until it is repealed.
In 1817, Abraham Thornton was charged with the
murderMurder, as defined in common law countries, is the unlawful killing of another human being with intent , and generally this state of mind distinguishes murder from other forms of unlawful homicide...
of Mary Ashford, but the jury acquitted the defendant.
Mary’s brother, William Ashford, launched an appeal at the King’s Bench. The defendant claimed the right to
trial by combatTrial by combat was a method of Germanic law to settle accusations in the absence of witnesses or a confession, in which two parties in dispute fought in single combat; the winner of the fight was proclaimed to be right. In essence, it is a judicially sanctioned duel...
, a medieval usage which had not been specifically repealed by
ParliamentThe Parliament of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is the supreme legislative body in the United Kingdom and British overseas territories. It alone has parliamentary sovereignty, conferring upon it ultimate power over all other political bodies in the UK and its territories...
.
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Ashford v. Thornton was an 1818 English
legal caseA legal case is a dispute between opposing parties resolved by a court, or by some equivalent legal process. A legal case may be either civil or criminal...
standing for the principle that all law remains until it is repealed.
In 1817, Abraham Thornton was charged with the
murderMurder, as defined in common law countries, is the unlawful killing of another human being with intent , and generally this state of mind distinguishes murder from other forms of unlawful homicide...
of Mary Ashford, but the jury acquitted the defendant.
Mary’s brother, William Ashford, launched an appeal at the King’s Bench. The defendant claimed the right to
trial by combatTrial by combat was a method of Germanic law to settle accusations in the absence of witnesses or a confession, in which two parties in dispute fought in single combat; the winner of the fight was proclaimed to be right. In essence, it is a judicially sanctioned duel...
, a medieval usage which had not been specifically repealed by
ParliamentThe Parliament of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is the supreme legislative body in the United Kingdom and British overseas territories. It alone has parliamentary sovereignty, conferring upon it ultimate power over all other political bodies in the UK and its territories...
. The prosecution stated that a law ought to become invalid if it was not used for centuries.
The court decided that all law remains until it is repealed; therefore, Thornton was granted trial by battle. Ashford declined the offer and Thornton won his case.
After this ruling, Parliament, the next year,
repealA repeal is the removal or reversal of a law. This is generally done when a law is no longer effective, or it is shown that a law is having far more negative consequences than were originally envisioned....
ed the right to trial by combat.
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