Vagrants, Rogues and Vagabonds--Old Concepts in Need of Revision
1960; UC Berkeley School of Law; Volume: 48; Issue: 4 Linguagem: Inglês
10.15779/z38vx9m
ISSN1942-6542
Autores Tópico(s)Law in Society and Culture
ResumoT HE ARCHAIC pattern of Dogberry's speech by which he commissioned the constable of the watch is an inseparable part of the charm and interest so characteristic of the writing of Shakespeare. Transposed to the contemporary American scene, however, and cherished on the pages of what we are pleased to call a modern statutory system, its anachronistic character is ill-suited to the objectives of the administration of justice in a modern world. It has been so transposed, nonetheless, to the vagrancy statutes of virtually every jurisdiction in the United States.' If this were merely a matter of style, if phraseology alone were at the heart of the matter, retaining the quaint medieval syntax of old England might be tolerated on grounds of historical sentiment. Unfortunately, the 14th century wagabund and Shakespeare's vagrom men are not just words for which modern substitutes stand readily at hand, nor are the statutes in which the vagrant, rogue and vagabond of today are identified and defined
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