Commonsense justice: jurors' notions of the law

Abstract

Law is an essentially human endeavour, a collection of psychological theories about why people think, feel, and behave as they do, and when and why we should find some of them blameworthy and punishable. But is it independent of community sentiment, as some would contend? Or do juries bring the community's judgment bear on the moral blameworthiness of the defendant? When jurors decide that the is unfair, or the punishment inappropriate for a particular defendant, they have sometimes nullified the law-not defeat legal authority but to perfect and complete it. In this book, Norman J. Finkel explores the relationship between the law on the books, as set down in the Constitution and developed in cases and decisions, and what he calls commonsense justice, the ordinary citizen's notions of what is just and fair.

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