Title
Trial by Jury : The Seventh Amendment and Anglo-American Special Juries / James Oldham.
ISBN
9780814762592
Published
New York, NY : : New York University Press, [2006]
Copyright
©2006
Language
English
Language Note
In English.
Description
1 online resource
Item Number
10.18574/nyu/9780814762592.001.0001 doi
Call Number
KF8972 .O415 2006
Dewey Decimal Classification
347.73/752
Summary
While the right to be judged by one's peers in a court of law appears to be a hallmark of American law, protected in civil cases by the Seventh Amendment to the Constitution, the civil jury is actually an import from England. Legal historian James Oldham assembles a mix of his signature essays and new work on the history of jury trial, tracing how trial by jury was transplanted to America and preserved in the Constitution.Trial by Jury begins with a rigorous examination of English civil jury practices in the late eighteenth century, including how judges determined one's right to trial by jury and who composed the jury. Oldham then considers the extensive historical use of a variety of "special juries," such as juries of merchants for commercial cases and juries of women for claims of pregnancy. Special juries were used for centuries in both English and American law, although they are now considered antithetical to the idea that American juries should be drawn from jury pools that reflect reasonable cross-sections of their communities. An introductory overview addresses the relevance of Anglo-American legal tradition and history in understanding America's modern jury system.
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 18. Sep 2023)
Available in Other Form
print 9780814762042
Frontmatter
Contents
Preface
Introduction
1. The Scope of the Seventh Amendment Guarantee
2. The "Complexity Exception"
3. Law versus Fact
4. Determining Damages
5. The Jury of Matrons
6. The Self-Informing Jury
7. The English Origins of the Special Jury
8. Special Juries in England
9. Special Juries in the United States and Modern Jury Formation Procedures
Appendix 1
Appendix 2
Appendix 3
Appendix 4
Notes
Table of Statutes
Table of Cases
Index
About the Author
