2013 Law Review Symposium: The Civil Jury as a Political Institution: The Civil Jury\u27s Place in Our Structure of Government

The debate over the civil jury in the United States – in both the academic literature and public domain -- tends to focus on how good or bad it is as an adjudicative institution. But its justification has always been as a political institution. Though the civil jury’s role as a political institution has strong historical roots, its place in our contemporary political system has received relatively little, sustained scholarly attention. This Symposium aims to build on recent work taking a renewed look at the various justifications for the civil jury as a political institution: as an instrument of popular sovereignty, a vehicle for applying community norms in law, a source of democratic legitimacy, and a check on government and corporate power