ABSTRACT
It is gener ally accep ted that the jury of ‘12 good men and true’ lies at the heart of the British legal system. The impli cit assump tion is that the pres ence of 12 ordin ary lay - persons, randomly intro duced into the trial proced ure to be the arbit ers of the facts of the case, strengthens the legit im acy of the legal system. It supposedly achieves this end by intro du cing a demo cratic human ising element into the abstract imper sonal trial process, thereby redu cing the exclus ive power of the legal profes sion als who would other wise command the legal stage and control the legal proced ure without refer ence to the opinion of the lay major ity.
