Barbara A. Black
"This first-rate work of legal history meets the high expectations of those familiar with James Oldham's scholarship, and bears those hallmarks of excellence that we associate with that scholarship: total mastery of the manuscript and other sources, lucid exposition, fresh perspective, and sound insight. Illuminating not only the history of the jury, but the contemporary significance and judicial use of that history, this book will be enlightening for the non-specialist, and a boon to the legal historian."
George Welwood Murray Professor of Legal History, Columbia Law School
John H. Langbein
"Not only legal historians but also practicing historians have a special interest in the subject of this book. One gets a picture of the plasticity of eighteenth-century jury practice that has not been understood."
Sterling Professor of Law & Legal History, Yale Law School
David J. Seipp
"Oldham wonderfully complicates our historical image of the trial jury enshrined in the Sixth and Seventh Amendments of the Bill of Rights. Early English common law summoned juries of women, foreigners, experts, tradesmen, and neighbors, all deliberately chosen to bring their particular knowledge or experience to court. More than any other scholar, Oldham has revealed the manuscript sources that illuminate the context of English trial practice at the time the Bill of Rights was drafted in the newly-independent United States."
Professor of Law, Boston University School of Law
From the Publisher
“This piecemeal research is interesting to the extent that the reader is interested in reconstructing the past.”
-The Law and Politics Book Review
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“This first-rate work of legal history meets the high expectations of those familiar with James Oldham’s scholarship, and bears those hallmarks of excellence that we associate with that scholarship: total mastery of the manuscript and other sources, lucid exposition, fresh perspective, and sound insight. Illuminating not only the history of the jury, but the contemporary significance and judicial use of that history, this book will be enlightening for the non-specialist, and a boon to the legal historian.”
-Barbara A. Black,George Welwood Murray Professor of Legal History, Columbia Law School
“Essential reading for anyone interested in trial by jury. Oldham speaks with authority about who the jurors were and what they decided. Surprisingly, he supports a 'complexity exception' to the Seventh Amendment's jury trial guarantee in civil cases. His carefully-documented history of both male and female juries of experts is uniquely valuable. No comparable work exists.”
-William E. Nelson,Judge Edward Weinfeld Professor of Law, NYU School of Law
“An impressive achievement by the leading historian of eighteenth century English law. Meticulously researched and relevant both to historical and modern debates, this book deserves a wide readership.”
-Thomas P. Gallanis,Professor of Law and History, Washington and Lee University
“Oldham wonderfully complicates our historical image of the trial jury enshrined in the Sixth and Seventh Amendments of the Bill of Rights. Early English common law summoned juries of women, foreigners, experts, tradesmen, and neighbors, all deliberately chosen to bring their particular knowledge or experience to court. More than any other scholar, Oldham has revealed the manuscript sources that illuminate the context of English trial practice at the time the Bill of Rights was drafted in the newly-independent United States.”
-David J. Seipp,Professor of Law, Boston University School of Law
William E. Nelson
"Essential reading for anyone interested in trial by jury. Oldham speaks with authority about who the jurors were and what they decided. Surprisingly, he supports a 'complexity exception' to the Seventh Amendment's jury trial guarantee in civil cases. His carefully-documented history of both male and female juries of experts is uniquely valuable. No comparable work exists."
Judge Edward Weinfeld Professor of Law, NYU School of Law
Thomas P. Gallanis
"An impressive achievement by the leading historian of eighteenth century English law. Meticulously researched and relevant both to historical and modern debates, this book deserves a wide readership."
Professor of Law and History, Washington and Lee University