So that, if an unjust law were binding upon a jury in civil suits, a defendant, by resisting the execution of the judgment, could, in effect, convert the civil action into a criminal one, in which the jury would be paramount to the same legislation, to which, in the civil suit, they were subordinate.
Spooner explains how unjust laws can blur the lines between civil and criminal actions for juries.
Share
More from Lysander Spooner
A man has a natural right to enforce his own rights and redress his own wrongs.
What else than ignorance of the law is it that excuses persons under the years of discretion, and men of imbecile minds?
They cannot claim or expect that the whole people shall practise the folly of taking on trust their pretended superior knowledge, and of committing blindly into their hands all their own interests, liberties, and rights, to be disposed of…
All those who are not forbidden by law may be judges (jurors).