Trial by jury

Next in the Agreement is one that we did sort-of fix back then: that ‘trials should be held before twelve jurymen, freely chosen by their community’. The catch was that only voters could be jurymen, which led it back into the same mess as for parliament, but this time as ‘justice by the rich, for the rich, on behalf of the rich’. Which, if we read the histories from that period, it’s kind of obvious was often a long way from anything resembling real justice. Ouch.

In some ways better now, though in some ways worse: trial in front of a magistrate is a lot different from trial by jury. I suppose it’s become necessary, given the sheer mass of law that we deal these days, but still…

Next in the Agreement is one that we did sort-of fix back then: that ‘trials should be held before twelve jurymen, freely chosen by their community’. The catch was that only voters could be jurymen, which led it back into the same mess as for parliament, but this time as ‘justice by the rich, for the rich, on behalf of the rich’. Which, if we read the histories from that period, it’s kind of obvious was often a long way from anything resembling real justice. Ouch.

In some ways better now, though in some ways worse: trial in front of a magistrate is a lot different from trial by jury. I suppose it’s become necessary, given the sheer mass of law that we deal these days, but still…

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