From these beginnings the Session Papers were published in a substantially continuous series for nearly two and a half centuries. The series underwent incessant change in size, format, content, and function. From their origins as episodic chapbooks they became a periodical, published immediately after each of the eight annual sessions of the court, and sold separately for a few pence. In the 1680s the pamphlets became semi-official, under license from the City of London; by the later eighteenth century, the City was subsidizing the publication. Instead of limiting themselves to a selection of higher-profile cases, the Session Papers began to report increasing numbers of mundane property crimes that comprised the bulk of the court’s caseload. Crude sensation-mongering died out from the title pages, and moral instruction disappeared from the accounts. The series came to operate under an obligation of completeness; at least the outcome of every trial held at the particular sessions was noted. As the eighteenth century wore on, the Session Papers lost interest in street-corner sales and became a stodgy, quasi-official crime calendar, published under license of, and ultimately with financial support from, the City of London.

— John Langbein, The Origins of Adversary Criminal Trial