ABSTRACT
The procedure of deciding cases on the basis of the deliberations of a jury is an ancient one, and one that has attracted much praise within the British legal system. The implicit assumption underlying this quotation is that the presence of 12 ordinary lay persons, randomly introduced into the trial procedure to be the arbiters of the facts of the case, strengthens the legitimacy of the legal system. It supposedly achieves this end by introducing a democratic, humanising element into the abstract, impersonal trial process, thereby reducing the exclusive power of the legal professionals who would
According to Lord Denning:
What assumptions underlie this statement and to what degree are they accurate or, indeed, justifiable?
