On the record
A trial in one of these courts of injustice is a trial by battle, almost, if not quite, as really as was a trial by battle, five hundred or a thousand years ago.
Said by
Lysander Spooner
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gutenberg.orgLysander Spooner: “A trial in one of these courts of injustice is a trial by battle, almost, if not quite, as really as was a trial by…”
Editor's note · Context
Spooner compares modern trials to ancient trials by battle, emphasizing their brutality.
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More from Lysander Spooner
It was a principle of the Common Law, as it is of the law of nature, and of common sense, that no man can be taxed without his personal consent.
One answer is, that this power, which juries have of judging of the law, is not a power of absolute decision in all cases.
It was simply, that they would neither convict the innocent, nor acquit the guilty.
There is no more absurdity in giving a jury a veto upon the laws, than there is in giving a veto to each of these other tribunals.