Commonsense Justice : Jurors' Notions of the Law / Norman J. Finkel.
2001
KF380 ǂb F56 1995eb
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Details
Title
Commonsense Justice : Jurors' Notions of the Law / Norman J. Finkel.
Author
Finkel, Norman J., author.
ISBN
9780674036871
Published
Cambridge, MA : Harvard University Press, [2001]
Copyright
©2011
Language
English
Language Note
In English.
Description
1 online resource (400 p.)
Other Standard Identifiers
10.4159/9780674036871 doi
Call Number
KF380 ǂb F56 1995eb
Dewey Decimal Classification
340.1
Summary
For the first time in our history, U.S. prisons house over a million inmates, enough to populate a city larger than San Francisco. Building prisons is the new growth industry, as the American public reacts to a perceived increase in violence and politicians take a hard line toward crime. But this eagerness to construct more prisons raises basic questions about what the community wants and will tolerate and what the Supreme Court will sanction. In this timely book, Norman Finkel looks at the relationship between the "law on the books," as set down in the Constitution and developed in cases and decisions, and what he calls "commonsense justice," the ordinary citizen's notions of what is just and fair. Law is an essentially human endeavor, a collection of psychological theories about why people think, feel, and behave as they do, and when and why we should find some of them blameworthy and punishable. But is it independent of community sentiment, as some would contend? Or, as Finkel suggests, do juries bring the community's judgment to bear on the moral blameworthiness of the defendant? When jurors decide that the law is unfair, or the punishment inappropriate for a particular defendant, they have sometimes nullified the law. Nullification represents the jury's desire not to defeat but "to perfect and complete" the law. It is the "no confidence" vote of commonsense justice refusing to follow the path the law has marked out--and pointing to a new path based on what seem to be more just grounds. Finkel brings to life the story behind the jury and judicial decisions, interweaving anecdotes, case law, and social science research to present a balanced and comprehensive view of important legal and social policy issues.
Access Note
Access limited to authorized users.
System Details Note
Mode of access: Internet via World Wide Web.
Digital File Characteristics
text file PDF
Source of Description
Description based on online resource; title from PDF title page (publisher's Web site, viewed 01. Dez 2022)
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Table of Contents
Frontmatter
Acknowledgments
Contents
Introduction
1. In Search of Community Sentiment
2. Understanding Nullification
3. Revealing Jurors' Sentiments
4. How Jurors Construct Reality
5. Objectivity versus Subjectivity in the Law
6. The Sacred Precinct of the Bedroom
7. The Right to Die
8. Cruel and Unusual Punishment
9. Murther Most Foul
10. Death Is Different
11. The Juvenile Death Penalty
12. On Self-Defense Justice
13. The Self-Defense Drama
14. The Maddening Changes in Insanity Law
15. How Jurors Construe Insanity
16. Murderous Passions, Mitigating Sentiments
17. The Path of Commonsense Justice
Notes
Index
Acknowledgments
Contents
Introduction
1. In Search of Community Sentiment
2. Understanding Nullification
3. Revealing Jurors' Sentiments
4. How Jurors Construct Reality
5. Objectivity versus Subjectivity in the Law
6. The Sacred Precinct of the Bedroom
7. The Right to Die
8. Cruel and Unusual Punishment
9. Murther Most Foul
10. Death Is Different
11. The Juvenile Death Penalty
12. On Self-Defense Justice
13. The Self-Defense Drama
14. The Maddening Changes in Insanity Law
15. How Jurors Construe Insanity
16. Murderous Passions, Mitigating Sentiments
17. The Path of Commonsense Justice
Notes
Index