ABSTRACT
This chapter examines how the coronial manual functioned as a technology of office in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. The manual guided coroners in interpreting the scope of their jurisdiction, the performance of their duties and the proper administration of inquests. It technocratised the practices of coronial law and procedure, while offering guidance on how to fulfil the obligations of the coroner’s office. The manual was undoubtedly preoccupied with questions of technical knowledge, skill and expertise; yet this does not mean that it was bereft of an ethics of responsibility. It held on to the question of responsibility by framing the death investigation process within a bureaucratic logic of office. The chapter thus shows how the coronial manual assumed an indispensable role in the formation of an ethical mindset towards the dead.
