Development in common law Anglo-Saxon origins The notion of "king's peace" originates in
Anglo-Saxon law. Historian Bruce R. O'Brien notes that the concept was "a vague statement of the
inviolability of the king or his palace" under the early
English kings. Individuals and institutions under the king's peace included
legates, churches, and assemblies. The
Leges Edwardi Confessoris provided that the weeks for
Christmas,
Easter, and
Pentecost were under the king's peace as well. For example, roads other than the four great Roman roads were formerly under the sheriffs' peace, but by the end of the 14th century had been brought under the king's peace. One who breached the king's peace was subject to punishment for both the breach and for the underlying conduct, Sureties of the peace were replaced in the 13th and 14th centuries, as the institutions of keeper of the peace and then
justice of the peace were established.
Law of homicide In traditional common law, a killing of a human was a murder only if the victim was "under the king's peace" (i.e., not an outlaw or an enemy soldier in wartime). This was predicated on the notion that, because the outlaw lived outside the king's peace, the king would not punish offenses against the outlaw. Similarly, the
maiming of a person was an offense against the king because it reduced "the value of a
human resource, in this case, by rendering him incapable of military service."
Lord Scarman, in his
report on the
1981 Brixton riot, defined the "Queen's Peace" as the maintenance of "the normal state of society" (i.e., a "state of public tranquility") and defined it as the first duty of a police officer, ahead of the second duty of
enforcing the law. In a 2011 speech to the Police Foundation,
Lord Judge (the
Lord Chief Justice of England and Wales) said, "The concept Queen's Peace as it now is, unbreakably linked with the common law, is arguably the most cherished of all the ideas from our medieval past, still resonating in the modern world." He noted that the police officers take an oath to "cause the peace to be kept and preserved and prevent all offences against people and property."
Breach of the peace In modern English law, a
breach of the peace is not itself a crime. However, "where a breach of the peace has been committed or, alternatively, where such a breach is reasonably believed to be imminent, a police officer, or for that matter a member of the public, has the power at common law to arrest without
warrant the individual or individuals who have either committed or are about to commit that breach of the peace even though no offence has actually been committed." Under the
Magistrates' Courts Act 1980, a magistrate has the power to "bind over" a person to keep the peace (i.e., to forfeit a sum of money upon a subsequent breach of the peace), and "refusal to be bound over to keep the peace is an offence in English law, punishable by up to six months' imprisonment." Moreover, the obstruction of an officer engaged in preventing a breach of the peace is a criminal offence. The case
R v Howell (1981) defined breach of the peace as "harm ... actually done or likely to be done to a person or, in his presence, his property or is put in fear of being harmed through an assault,
affray, riot, unlawful assembly or other disturbance." In the 1998 case of
Steel v UK, the
European Court of Human Rights decided that this was a lawful restriction of the
freedom of assembly under
Article 5 and
Article 11 of the European Convention on Human Rights. ==Medieval Scotland==