The practice of the Appellate court and it's changes regarding Constitutio criminalis Josephina: the offence of incest in years 1687-1727
Abstract
This paper focuses on the practice of the Appellate court and it's changes regarding Constitutio criminalis Josephina, the penal code of emperor Josef I. This law was declared in 1707 and newly modified the list of offences.
Attention is particularly paid to the offence of incest in years 1687-1727. The paper compares practice of the Appellate court in two decades before the implementation of Josephina and two decades after it.
The main sources are apart from Josephina is the city law from 1579 and over than twenty books of verdicts of the Appellate court. This paper argues that the disgracing punishments were used very often in the period before implementing Josephina.
Moreover almost no accused persons were sentenced to death penalty before Josephina in comparison with the period that followed. Last but not least Josephina entailed equality between men and women regarding type and level of the sentence.