A Study On Jury In England During The Medieval Period From The Perspective Of Safeguarding Individual Freedom

The Jury in England during the medieval period is first a means of strengthening centralpower for the king and is a top-down system, but because it is a legal system participated bythe common people, it becomes a weapon of safeguarding personal freedom for the commonpeople. Therefore, the Jury System, which is judged by12members together after swearing,becomes the tool of safeguarding the personal freedom for the common people under thefeudal centralization and is one of the foundations of forming the British democracy.This thesis first discusses the jury about its origin, formation and the extensivebackground of the practice and points out that the jury has a feature of common peopleparticipating together. This kind of democracy decides that even the jury is a tool for the kingto strengthen the rule, it still can guarantee the public authority to a certain extent. Second, thethesis expounds the county court jury and the selection of the jury and it discusses the countycourt jury how to protect the personal freedom taking the slight theft and land disputes forexample. Third, the thesis states the manor court jury protects the personal freedom andintroduces the manor court jury and the personnel form of the jury. This thesis focuses on theways of protecting individual freedom for the manor court including declared habits,prosecution and judgment. Although the jury system in England during the medieval period iscarried out for the purposes of strengthen the feudal monarchy, but it does not become the toolof strengthening the royalty completely, on the contrary it guarantees the personal freedom toa certain extent.