On the record
The administration of justice was carefully provided for; it was not the caprice of their lord, but the sentence of their peers, that they obeyed.
Said by
Lysander Spooner
Source
gutenberg.orgLysander Spooner: “The administration of justice was carefully provided for; it was not the caprice of their lord, but the sentence of…”
Editor's note · Context
This quote highlights the importance of peer judgment in the administration of justice, rather than arbitrary decisions by a lord.
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More from Lysander Spooner
One answer is, that this power, which juries have of judging of the law, is not a power of absolute decision in all cases.
But there is no reason why a judge should have the power of punishing, for contempt, any more than for any other offence.
And yet these reasons, which are really no reasons at all, are the only ones, so far as I know, that have ever been offered for this absurd and brutal doctrine.
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.