lijkschouwer

Lijkschouwer is a historical Dutch term referring to a person who was charged with inspecting corpses after death, in order to determine the cause of death and to identify the deceased. The role is associated with early forms of forensic practice and with municipal or judicial procedures in which the dead body required examination for legal purposes.

Etymology and variation: the term derives from lijk, meaning corpse, and schouwen, meaning to inspect or survey, with the agent noun suffix -er. Variants in spelling and usage appeared in different regions and periods, reflecting shifts in legal and medical practices.

Historical context: lijkschouwers operated mainly in the medieval and early modern Low Countries, including what is now the Netherlands and Belgium. They functioned at the intersection of law, administration, and medicine, performing examinations that could influence investigations into violence, accident, or unexplained death. In some locales the examination was conducted in conjunction with physicians or surgeons, who provided medical expertise during the process.

Duties and responsibilities: typical duties included inspecting the body for signs of trauma or foul play, verifying time and manner of death, attempting to identify the deceased, and reporting findings to magistrates or coroner-like authorities. They sometimes issued a certificate or record of the death, which could be used in legal proceedings or for burial.

Decline and legacy: with the emergence of formalized coronial and forensic systems in later centuries, the explicit role of the lijkschouwer diminished. The term survives mainly in historical sources and discussions of early forensic and legal practices in Dutch-speaking regions.