From Tocqueville, p. 275 (see readings and class from February 22, 24):
Juries are wonderfully effective in shaping a nation’s judgment and increasing its natural lights. That, in my view, is [the jury system’s] greatest advantage. It should be regarded as a free school which is always open and in which each juror learns his rights, comes into daily contact with the best-educated and most-enlightened members of the upper classes, and is given practical lessons in the law, lessons which the advocate’s efforts, the judge’s advice, and also the very passions of the litigants bring within his mental grasp. I think that the main reason for the practical intelligence and the political good sense of the Americans is their long experience with juries in civil cases.
A famous summation in a jury trial:
An appellete court hears a case:
C-SPAN documentary on the court (start at 36:40)
Oyez: audio and transcript of oral argument
No comments:
Post a Comment