* Lysander Spooner's famous 'An Essay on the Trial by Jury'* Includes a Preface and Introduction to Spooner and his works by author StephenLysander Spooner (1808-1887) was an American political philosopher, staunch abolitionist and pioneering anti-authoritarian whose courage to dispute tyranny and challenge monopoly reverberates to this day.For more than eight hundred years (since Magna Carta, in 1215), there has been no clearer principle of English or American constitutional law, that jury nullification is a vital safeguard for liberty of last resort. This profound, historic essay presents Spooner's case.

Satisfactory evidence, though not all the evidence, of what the Common Law trial by jury really is'

Excerpt from An Essay on the Trial by Jury Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1852, by lysander spooner, In the Clerk's Omoe of the District Court of Massachusetts. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.

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In "An Essay on Trial by Jury," Lysander Spooner defends the doctrine of jury nullification, which holds that in a free society a trial jury not only has the authority to rule on the facts of the case, but also on the legitimacy of the law under which the case is tried, and which would allow juries to refuse to convict if they regard the law they are asked to convict under as illegitimate.

"A brief review of its origin, development and merits and practical discussions on actual conduct of jury trials, together with a consideration of constitutional provisions and other cognate subjects of importance."--T.p.