ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the two main official inquiries into deaths -the coroner’s inquest and the public inquiry. The ancient history and traditions of the coroner’s court will be outlined, followed by a critique of the inherent contradictions of the statutory duties and rules of evidence, most of which are based on a belief that the inquest is an inquisitorial, neutral, fact-finding process. The inquest was regarded as a ‘dummy run for a later criminal trial’ with the coroner making recommendations to the Crown on indictment for crimes, as well as serving on criminal and civil cases. The 1926 Coroners’ Act, by which coroners had to ‘adjourn inquests where charges of manslaughter, murder or infanticide could be brought by another court’ and dispensed with an inquest if the death was due to natural causes. Inquest sees ‘legal representation is necessary in the public interest to ensure thorough investigation and scrutiny into deaths which may have important issues of wider concern’.
