While the right to be judged by one's peers in a court of law appears to be a hallmark of American law, protected in civil cases by the Seventh Amendment to the Constitution, the civil jury is actually an import from England. Legal historian James Oldham assembles a mix of his signature essays and new work on the history of jury trial, tracing how trial by jury was transplanted to America and preserved in the Constitution.

Trial by Jury begins with a rigorous examination of English civil jury practices in the late eighteenth century, including how judges determined...

"Jury Duty: Reclaiming Your Political Power and Taking Responsibility" presents an accessible account of the origins and development of the jury system as well as a comprehensive, stage-by-stage description of a jury trial and of the sentencing procedure in a criminal trial. The work also provides a unique estimate of the cost of the jury system, which is particularly relevant in this continuing era of budget constraints.

Rejecting the justifications usually given for the jury system, the work explains how the political roles of the jury constitute the chief value of the jury system....

"Reconstructing Reality in the Courtroom" explains what makes stories believable and how ordinary people connect complex legal arguments and evidence presented in trials to assess guilt and innocence. The explanation takes the core elements of narrative-the who, what, where, when, how, why-and shows how average people who hear hundreds of stories every day use the connections between these elements to assess credibility.

A series of simple experiments outside the courtroom provides evidence for the explanation, showing that there is little relationship between the actual truth of a...

Honorable Mention, 2017 Scribes Book Award, The American Society of Legal Writers

At the dawn of the twentieth century, the United States was reeling from the effects of rapid urbanization and industrialization. Time-honored verities proved obsolete, and intellectuals in all fields sought ways to make sense of an increasingly unfamiliar reality. The legal system in particular began to buckle under the weight of its anachronism. In the midst of this crisis, John Henry Wigmore, dean of the Northwestern University School of Law, single-handedly modernized the jury trial with his...