Criminal Jury Trial: History and Alternatives
This course will examine the history of criminal jury trial from the medieval era through the modern age. Topics to be explored include: pre-jury modes of criminal case disposition, including trial by battle and the ordeal; the English origins of the self-informing jury; the nature of felony proceedings in the early modern period; the rise of adversary criminal trial; and the gradual “eclipse” of criminal jury trial through summary proceedings and plea bargaining. Readings will consist of a mix of primary sources and leading secondary works on criminal jury trial and its alternatives. Students will write an original legal-historical research paper on a subject of their choice, approved and supervised by the instructor.