Table of Contents

List of illustrations Introduction 1. Why use lay jurors? The ancient and medieval world 2. Reasons for lay jurors in early modern and modern societies 3. Jury nullification 4. Who serves as a juror? 5. The scope and structure of the jury 6. The limitations of lay jurors 7. Jury control and avoidance 8. The Future of the Jury References Further reading Index

About the Author

Renée Lettow Lerner is the Donald Phillip Rothschild Research Professor of Law at George Washington University Law School. After graduating from Yale Law School, she was a law clerk to Justice Anthony M. Kennedy of the U.S. Supreme Court and to Judge Stephen F. Williams of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. From 2003 to 2005, she served as Deputy Assistant Attorney General in the Office of Legal Counsel at the
U.S. Department of Justice. She was a witness in a murder case in Paris, France, before a mixed panel of professional judges and lay jurors. Lerner is the author of History of the Common Law: The Development of Anglo-American
Legal Institutions (2009).

Reviews

This is a fascinating short book written with an international emphasis by an American academic who, like many of her US colleagues, values English common law perhaps more than we do. The book introduces the subject with consideration of two films made in the same period. They are To Kill a Mockingbird and 12 Angry Men (pictured), both of which have very different outcomes but deal with jury trial.
*David Pickup, The Gazette*

An excellent and fascinating short book written with an international emphasis.
*Best Law Books of the Year 2023, The Law Gazzette*