From Beccaria onward, penal law developed by reaction against the
excessive and arbitrary severity of the Middle Ages--a reaction
which led to a progressive decrease of punishments. Similarly
official penal procedure in the nineteenth century has been, and
continues to be, a reaction against the mediaeval abuses of the
inquisitorial system, in the sense of a progressive increase of
individual guarantees against the domination of society.
As we considered it necessary in the interests of social self-
defence, in the case of criminal law, to combat the individualist
excesses of the classical school, so in regard to penal procedure,
whilst admitting the irrevocable guarantees of individual liberty,
secured under the old system, we think it necessary to restore the
equilibrium between individual and social rights, which has been
disturbed by the many exaggerations of the classical
theories, as we will now proceed to show by a few examples.
The presumption of innocence, and therewith the more general rule,
``in dubio pro reo,'' is certainly based on an actual truth, and
is doubtless obligatory during the progress of the trial.
Undetected criminals are fortunately a very small minority as
compared with honest people; and we must consequently regard every
man who is placed on his trial as innocent until the contrary has
been proved.
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