ABSTRACT
The relationship between the witch-hunt which took place in Europe in the early modern period and the machinery, procedure and conceptual apparatus of the law was especially intimate. The following analysis explores the contribution of legal culture and institutions to England's distinctive experience of the witch-hunt, focusing in particular upon the various respects in which trial and pre-trial procedures were adapted to take account of the exceptional nature of the crime of witchcraft, which was perceived as posing special problems of evidence and proof.
