An Essay On The Trial By Jury (Civil Liberties in American History Series)

Spooner, Lysander. An Essay on the Trial by Jury. Boston: Bela Marsh, 1852. 224 pp. Reprinted 2002 by The Lawbook Exchange, Ltd. LCCN 00-058811. ISBN 1-58477-156-9. Cloth. $70. One of the earliest treatises on the subject. Spooner's powerful argument for reform of the jury system holds that jurors should be drawn by lot from the whole body of citizens, and that they should be judges of law as well as of the fact in question. Spooner [1808-1887] was well known for his controversial arguments on political and legal subjects. Dictionary of American Biography IX:466-467.