criminal-law england-and-wales
Legal abbreviation: &quot;Hal. pl. cr.&quot;
<p>What does the abbreviation &quot;Hal. pl. cr.&quot; in legal reporting refer to?</p>

<p>I've retracted and replaced my previous answer.</p>
<p>It is a citation to legal authority.</p>
<p>It is probably a reference to the book &quot;<a href="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/15/Matthew_Hale%2C_Historia_Placitorum_Coron%C3%A6_%281st_American_ed%2C_1847%2C_vol_1%29.pdf" rel="nofollow noreferrer">Hale, The History of the Pleas of the Crown</a> Hale PC&quot; (originally published 1736 with later editions also printed) (see <a href="https://www.law.ox.ac.uk/sites/files/oxlaw/oscola_4th_edn_hart_2012.pdf" rel="nofollow noreferrer">4.2.3</a>) with Hale abbreviated &quot;Hal.&quot;, &quot;pl.&quot; being an abbreviation for &quot;plea&quot; (see 4.2.2) and &quot;cr.&quot; being an abbreviation for &quot;crown&quot;. <a href="https://www.worldcat.org/title/historia-placitorum-coron-the-history-of-the-pleas-of-the-crown-by-sir-matthew-hale-now-first-published-from-his-lordships-original-manuscript-and-the-several-references-to-the-records-examined-by-the-originals-with-large-notes-by-sollom-emlyn-to-which-is-added-a-table-of-the-principal-matters-in-two-volumes/oclc/64151524?page=citation" rel="nofollow noreferrer">Standard citation form</a> is to spell it out, but if it is cited repeatedly later instances might be abbreviated.</p>
<p>The link is to a scanned version of the out of copyright historical legal treatise on criminal procedure and substantive criminal law. <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Historia_Placitorum_Coron%C3%A6" rel="nofollow noreferrer">Wikipedia</a> also discusses it as does a l<a href="https://lawlibrary.wm.edu/wythepedia/index.php/History_of_the_Pleas_of_the_Crown" rel="nofollow noreferrer">aw library Wiki</a>.</p>
