This book gives a complete overview of America's jury system. It has three instructional goals: to show where the jury stands in America's rich legal history, to explain the defining features of today's jury, and to identify aspects of the jury where improvements can and should be made. It can be used as a primary textbook for a course, or as a supplement in any law school course that includes a unit on the jury.
This work traces the emergence of the jury in 19th-century Spain and its establishment and disappearances throughout 190 years of Spanish history. The text is interdisciplinary, placing the successive Spanish jury laws within a general political and social context. It includes material on the origins of the echevinat and addresses issues not confronted by Spanish or other jurists, and it questions received wisdom.
CONTENTS: I. The Needless Mystery of Court House Government. II. Fights and Rights. III. Facts Are Guesses. IV. Modern Legal Magic. V. Wizards and Lawyers. VI. The "Fight" Theory versus the "Truth" Theory. VII. The Procedural Reformers. VIII. The Jury System. IX. Defenses of the Jury System--Suggested Reforms. X. Are Judges Human? XI. Psychological Approaches. XII. Criticism of Trial-Court Decisions--The Gestalt. XIII. A Trial as a Communicative Process. XIV. "Legal Science" and "Legal Engineering." XV. The Upper-Court Myth. XVI. Legal Education. XVII. Special Training for Trial Judges. XVIII. The Cult of the Robe. XIX. Precedents and Stability. XX. Codification. XXI. Words and Music: Legislation and Judicial Interpretation. XXII. Constitutions--The Merry-Go-Round. XIII. Legal Reasoning. XXIV. Da Capo. XXV. The Anthropological Approach. XXVI. Natural Law. XXVII. The Psychology of Litigants. XXVIII. The Unblindfolding of Justice. XXIX. Classicism and Romanticism. XXX. Justice and Emotions. XXXI. Questioning Some Legal Axioms. XXXII. Reason and Unreason--Ideals.
This unique volume on modern jury systems presents in-depth coverage of juries in Australia, England, Canada, New Zealand, the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland, Scotland and the United States. Coverage involves civil as well as criminal juries. The book has enormous value for students of comparative law and for practitioners and policy makers who are concerned about issues such as free press versus fair trial', pretrial prejudice, racial or ethnic bias, and complex evidence.
Although most countries around the world use professional judges, they also rely on lay citizens, untrained in the law, to decide criminal cases. The participation of lay citizens helps to incorporate community perspectives into legal outcomes and to provide greater legitimacy for the legal system and its verdicts. This book offers a comprehensive and comparative picture of how nations use lay people in legal decision-making. It provides a much-needed, in-depth analysis of the different approaches to citizen participation and considers why some countries' use of lay participation is long-standing whereas other countries alter or abandon their efforts. This book examines the many ways in which countries around the world embrace, reject, or reform the way in which they use ordinary citizens in legal decision-making.
This collection explores a variety of issues facing contemporary juries, bringing together innovative research from different disciplines and jurisdictions. The debate stems from a real concern that criticism of the jury may lead to a loss of public confidence in the institution and that this may renew government efforts to further restrict the role of the jury in criminal proceedings in England and Wales. This work offers an interdisciplinary approach presenting insights from legal, psychological and criminological perspectives, thus bypassing traditional borders and presenting a cohesive view. Issues discussed reflect the rapid advances in technology, changing dynamics and behaviours in society, and challenges that have been aggravated by the Covid-19 pandemic. Whilst the focus is primarily on juries in England, Wales, Scotland and across Ireland in terms of challenges and opportunities, the collection also invites a comparative perspective, drawing on experiences and related research in other jurisdictions. The book will be of interest to academics, researchers and policy-makers working in the areas of criminal law and procedure, criminal justice, criminology and psychology.
A History of American Law has become a classic for students of law, American history and sociology across the country. In this brilliant and immensely readable book, Lawrence M. Friedman tells the whole fascinating story of American law from its beginnings in the colonies to the present day. By showing how close the life of the law is to the economic and political life of the country, he makes a complex subject understandable and engrossing. A History of American Law presents the achievements and failures of the American legal system in the context of America's commercial and working world, family practices and attitudes toward property, slavery, government, crime and justice. Now Professor Friedman has completely revised and enlarged his landmark work, incorporating a great deal of new material. The book contains newly expanded notes, a bibliography and a bibliographical essay.
