| A Trying Question: The Jury in Nineteenth-Century Canada Contributor(s): Brown, R. Blake (Author) |
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ISBN: 1442640383 ISBN-13: 9781442640382 Publisher: University of Toronto Press OUR PRICE: $84.55 Product Type: Hardcover Published: October 2009 Annotation: A Trying Question traces the history of the jury in Canada and links its nineteenth-century decline to the rise of the professional class. |
| Additional Information |
| BISAC Categories: - Law | Legal History - History | Canada - Post-confederation (1867-) - History | Modern - 19th Century |
| Dewey: 347.710 |
| Series: Osgoode Society for Canadian Legal History (Hardcover) |
| Physical Information: 1.3" H x 6" W x 9.1" (1.50 lbs) 416 pages |
| Themes: - Cultural Region - Canadian - Chronological Period - 19th Century |
| Descriptions, Reviews, Etc. |
| Publisher Description: The jury, a central institution of the trial process, exemplifies in popular perception the distinctiveness of our legal tradition. Nevertheless, juries today try only a small minority of cases. A Trying Question traces the history of the jury in Canada and links its nineteenth-century decline to the rise of the professional class. R. Blake Brown shows that juries could be controversial, as they could be stacked and were often considered a nuisance by those who had to serve. With the legal profession's expansion, many saw them as amateur, ineffective, and unnecessarily expensive bodies that ought to be supplanted by those trained to sift through and correctly interpret evidence. A Trying Question's fascinating history outlines the ways in which lay people became less involved in Canada's legal system and illustrates how judges, rather than jurors drawn from the community, would come to find verdicts in most court cases. |
Contributor Bio(s): Brown, R. Blake: - R. Blake Brown is a professor in the Department of History and Atlantic Canada Studies at Saint Mary's University. |