People have always been interested in investigating crimes and punishing criminals. What is more here: curiosity, thirst for Justice, subconscious (and sometimes conscious!) Interest in Evil - it's hard to say. In any case, the search for an ideal way to determine guilt-innocence and proportionate punishment has been going on for thousands of years.Among the characters in the book are both famous people - Socrates, Giordano Bruno, Abraham Lincoln, Leo Tolstoy, and mere mortals - Russians peasants, English sailors, Italian immigrants. One thing is invariable: the courtroom, strict judges, quivering defendants.Let's try to trace some of the twists and turns of this extremely difficult path:• let's think about the shortcomings of the most democratic Athens court in the world,• evaluate the ambiguity of the introduction of the inquisitorial process,• critically examine the political persecution of the early modern period,• marvel at some judicial curiosities,• sympathize with some the accused, victims of a clear injustice.“We can all find ourselves in front of a judge. And to know how to justify oneself, see how the great ones did it. And how often they didn’t succeed.”Alexey Venediktov, editor-in-chief of Ekho MoskvyA book based on the program Not So on Echo of Moscow