This is quite an interesting topic, and not something I can recall ever considering before.
A nice case: no witnesses or evidence, but possibly a motive. What was the ME equivalent of a polygraph? Perhaps being tied to a chair with a basket of mushrooms in front of Pearl would have loosened her tongue!
Quote:
Originally Posted by Formendacil
One would either have to appeal to a higher authority or let the Thain's substitute fill in, both of which have problems. Regarding the substitute, we have no evidence that being the Thain was onerous enough to have any formally appointed deputies and even if he did, as a "royal family" of sorts, the obvious deputies are the Thain's own heirs, who are implicated in exactly the same situation he is--there is no suggestion at all that an unrelated Deputy Thain of Westfarthing (or something similar) existed.
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I agree that the Mayor wouldn't seem to have a place in such an investigation.
As for the Thain, the question of partiality notwithstanding, he looks to my eye to be more of a military leader, organizing resistance to
outside threats.
Hobbit-justice would seem to be a private matter in the books, for families to sort out themselves. Legal matters generally seem to be so: who decides when a will is "correct"? Or whether the sale of property is lawful? It appears to be the populace themselves. Bilbo needed no higher authority to approve of his adoption of Frodo.
Granted, that's civil matters against a possible criminal case, but still: criminal matters were so rare, maybe there just wasn't a pressing need for any higher authority to be set to investigate them.
On a related note, was the "accidental" drowning of Drogo and Primula Baggins afforded any general suspicion? I would think not, owing to the skepticism of the Gaffer to Sandyman's words in
FOTR.