Essay on the Trial By Jury | Page 3

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Scanner's Note: I have made two changes in this text. First I have
removed the footnotes to the end of each chapter and I have placed note
9 at the end of chapter 6 noting that because of the ratification of the
XIX amendment to the Constitution for the United States, August 20,
1920, women were fully enfranchised with all rights of voting and jury
service in all states of the Union. Other than the lack of italics and bold
in this text and the typos (may they be few) this is the complete first
edition text. Let me know of any mistakes you have caught! My email
address's for now is [email protected] and [email protected].
David Reed

An Essay on the Trial By Jury By LYSANDER SPOONER
Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1852, by
LYSANDER SPOONER
In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of Massachusetts.
NOTICE TO ENGLISH PUBLISHERS The author claims the

copyright of this book in England, on Common Law principles, without
regard to acts of parliament; and if the main principle of the book itself
be true, viz., that no legislation, in conflict with the Common Law, is of
any validity, his claim is a legal one. He forbids any one to reprint the
book without his consent.
Stereotyped by HOBART & ROBBINS; New England Type and
Stereotype Foundery,BOSTON.
NOTE
This volume, it is presumed by the author, gives what will generally be
considered satisfactory evidence, though not all the evidence, of what
the Common Law trial by jury really is. In a future volume, if it should
be called for, it is designed to corroborate the grounds taken in this;
give a concise view of the English constitution; show the
unconstitutional character of the existing government in England, and
the unconstitutional means by which the trial by jury has been broken
down in practice; prove that, neither in England nor the United States,
have legislatures ever been invested by the people with any authority to
impair the powers, change the oaths, or (with few exceptions) abridge
the jurisdiction, of juries, or select jurors on any other than Common
Law principles; and, consequently, that, in both countries, legislation is
still constitutionally subordinate to the discretion and consciences of
Common Law juries, in all cases, both civil and criminal, in which
juries sit. The same volume will probably also discuss several political
and legal questions, which will naturally assume importance if the trial
by jury should be reestablished.

CONTENTS

CHAPTER I
. THE RIGHT OF JURIES TO JUDGE OF THE JUSTICE OF LAWS
SECTION 1. SECTION 2.

CHAPTER II
. THE TRIAL BY JURY, AS DEFINED BY MAGNA CARTA
SECTION 1. The History Of Magna Carta SECTION 2. The Language
Of Magna Carta

CHAPTER III
. ADDITIONAL PROOFS OF THE RIGHTS AND DUTIES OF

JURORS. SECTION 1. Weakness of the Regal Authority SECTION 2.
The Ancient Common Law Juries Were Mere Courts Of Conscience
SECTION 3. The Oaths of Jurors SECTION 4. The Right Of Jurors To
Fix The Sentence SECTION 5. The Oaths Of Judges SECTION 6. The
Coronation Oath

CHAPTER IV
. THE RIGHTS AND DUTIES OF JURIES IN CIVIL SUITS
CHAPTER V
. OBJECTIONS ANSWERED
CHAPTER VI
. JURIES OF THE PRESENT DAY ILLEGAL
CHAPTER VII
. ILLEGAL JUDGES
CHAPTER VIII
. THE FREE ADMINISTRATION OF JUSTICE
CHAPTER IX
. THE CRIMINAL INTENT
CHAPTER X
. MORAL CONSIDERATIONS FOR JURORS
CHAPTER XI
. AUTHORITY OF MAGNA CARTA
CHAPTER XII
. LIMITATIONS IMPOSED UPON THE MAJORITY BY THE
TRIAL BY JURY
APPENDIX TAXATION

TRIAL BY JURY

CHAPTER I
THE RIGHT OF JURIES TO JUDGE OF THE JUSTICE OF LAWS
SECTION I.
FOR more than six hundred years that is, since Magna Carta, in 1215
there has been no clearer principle of English