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To say that a Judge may give a General
Verdict wherever they please, what does it
amount to? To this, that they are judges
of Law whenever they please — for no
not when they choose to keep the questions of fact and law unseparated, they may decide of both
general verdict can be given, but the
Law as well as the fact, must thereby
have been determined.
To say that Judges are the proper Judges of Law,
and Juries, of fact," what does it amount
to? That when the two questions are once
separated, (which cannot be done but by the
act of the Jury) then it is that the question
of fact belongs to the Jury to answer, not
to the Judges, the question of the Law, to the
Judges to answer not to the Jury; that
the Jury may have advice whenever they
chuse to ask it, but cannot be compelled
to ask it, (much less to abandon the
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deserving) when they think they need none.
I speak all this while in full contemplation
in causes of a political nature which engage the passions of men of the generality, and in any other causes which may happen to engage the passions of that particular body of men
of the inconveniences of giving this double power
to the Jury: in full persuasion that it
is the way to have one law for one man,
and another for another.
In all [correction] One that it is easier for a
Jury to discover their consciences in respect
to a matter of law than to a matter of fact
that it is doubly easy for men to find shelter
from the reproach of a false decision knowingly
pronounced, when they are at liberty
to shift their ground, and f represent their
conduct to t others or to themselves as built
at one time upon their opinion the matter of Law, another
trend upon the opinion of a the matter of fact, as they see
occasion: as the arguments that press against
one or the other of their foundations seem the
strongest.
give them the most uneasiness.
Procedure
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Has the Judge a right to compel the
Jury in any case to find their verdict
not general, but special? If he has, in
that case, when if he thinks fit to exercise
that right the Jury are proper judges
of Law. If he has not, they are Judges
of the Law in every case when they please,
that is when they please to find a general
verdict.
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Identifier: | JB/050/088/001"JB/" can not be assigned to a declared number type with value 50. |
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050 |
procedure code |
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088 |
procedure law & fact juries judges of law |
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001 |
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text sheet |
1 |
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recto |
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jeremy bentham |
[[watermarks::gr [crown motif] [britannia with shield motif]]] |
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16079 |
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