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.