Examine The History Of The British Jury System

Following the rapid development of modern society, the professionalization and specialization of law is an irresistible trend, which is accompanied by the phenomenon that law is becoming more and more similar to a technical work of professionals, more and more elitismistic. To alleviate this tension, modern jury system grows up and blooms in the judicial garden. Historically, jury of Anglo-Britain is the source of modern jury system, which comprises two branches: grand jury and petit jury, or presentment jury and trial jury. We acquainted trial jury through its frequent show-ups on the media. But grand jury, which is also viewed as the palladium of people's liberty in common law, has almost eluded us due to its secrecy in performing its activities. The idea supporting the grand jury is that people's life, body and honor are so important that it should not be harassed groundlessly. A system with such an important and kind intention should not be given the cold shoulder. Because of the historical consistency of the common law, anyone who wants to understand its principles has to view it in a historical perspective. England has been regarded as the motherland of modern jury system because its jury system has embodied so many features of modern jury system. So the thesis of this essay is to visualize the whole historical approach of England grand jury, through which we can get a right understanding of the common law in respect of the character of its democratic and free tradition.This essay consists of five parts, which are as follows:The preface is concerned with that why jury system still exists in a more and more professional and specialized modern society and the role that is played by the grand jury in the common law family. In the end of this part, the author points out that the best way to probe into grand jury system is to interpret it historically due to its empirical developing progress.The first part is dealing with the birth of grand jury system in England from the angle of the theoretical debates over the origin of grand jury system in the history. Frankish royal origin theory, which has suffered more and...