CAROLINA, ka-ro-le'na. This name is generally given to a famous law of the German Empire, of the year 1532, under Charles V, which he himself called an ordinance of crim inal procedure (Peinliche Gerichtsordnung). From him it was a later period called Consti tutio criminalis Carolina, or shortly Carolina. The arbitrary administration of justice, the dis order and cruelty which had become customary in the courts of Germany, where many a process was begun and ended with torture, and persons were sentenced even to death without regular process, gave occasion to this law. From the beginning of the peace of the land the necessity of such a law was felt throughout the country; but it was difficult in this, as in all other cases, to make the different members of the empire agree on one general measure. The Baron Jo hann von Schwarzenberg was chiefly instru mental in introducing this ordinance. He be came Minister of State of the Prince-bishop of Bamberg, and succeeded in procuring an ordi nance of criminal procedure for Bamberg to be drawn up and published in 1507. The same was also adopted in 1510 by the Margrave of Bran ilenburg and Franconia; and at last a law of criminal procedure for the empire at large was passed by the Diet at Ratisbon, in 1532. The
Carolina contains 219 articles, which regulate the standing and oaths of judges, the character of witnesses, the penalties of different crimes, and tile circumstances in which torture at that time common in criminal jurisprudence should be applied. Several German princes, as the Elector of Saxony, the Elector of Brandenburg, and of the Palatinate, protested against it, in order to protect the laws of their states and their own privileges against the legislative power of the Emperor; but at last the Carolina was established in almost every part of the empire. From the connection of Switzerland with Germany, and the fact that several Swiss towns were Imperial cities, German laws fre quently passed into Switzerland, and the Car olina became the law by which even the Swiss troops in the service of the kings of France were governed until the French Revolution. Consult ZETA, 'Die peinliche Gerichtsordnung Kaisers Karl V' (Leipzig 1883); Esmein, 'Histoire de la procedure cnrninelle en France' (Paris 1882, pp. 300ff.); Daguin, F., duction d'un code de procedure penale alle mande' (Paris 1884, pp. 30ff.).