Document Type
Article
Publication Title
Ohio State Law Journal
Abstract
Accordingly, the right question to ask when we inquire into how law was made in colonial courts is this: was law under the control of local communities, or did law represent the enforceable will of central political authorities? This Article represents a preliminary attempt, based on the research I have completed so far, to provide the broad outlines of a very complex answer to this question. It will proceed on a colony-by-colony basis, turning first to New England and Virginia, where juries and, hence, local commnunities possessed the power to determine the law, and then to Pennsylvania, where they did not. Finally, it will examine New York and the Carolinas, where the lawfinding power of juries was under a greater degree of judicial control but central political authorities nonetheless could not impose their will on localities.
First Page
1003
Volume
71
Publication Date
2010
Recommended Citation
Wiiliam E. Nelson,
The Lawfinding Power of Colonial American Juries,
71
Ohio State Law Journal
1003
(2010).
Available at:
https://gretchen.law.nyu.edu/fac-articles/865
