Description: 'Refractions' is Jeremy Smith's blog, in which he analyses (refracts) interesting bits of life's constant stream of happening. It's his take on politics, economics, law, history, culture, language......
history (7357) law (5270) politics (4046) la (3880) economics (1269)
Image: from Haldane Society poster, 1970s
“Each jury is a little parliament. The jury sense is the parliamentary sense. I cannot see the one dying and the other surviving. The first object of any tyrant in Whitehall would be to make Parliament utterly subservient to his will; and the next to overthrow or diminish trial by jury, for no tyrant could afford to leave a subject’s freedom in the hands of twelve of his countrymen.” – Sir Patrick Devlin, “Trial by Jury” , Hamlyn Trust, 1956
"If a jury, in despite of law and evidence, were to acquit a felon, he was immediately discharged; such was the wisdom of the constitution in the interposition and augmentation of the powers of a jury, lest the Crown should bear too hard on the life of a subject; nor could a jury be amerced or imprisoned for their verdict.“ - Thomas Erskine, 1791, House of Commons, in debate on Fox’s Libel Bill