Trial by Peers
idea · 3 works · 3 mentions · 3 anchored passages
tried by his peers · judgment of peers · per pares suos · trial by peers
in the texts
An Essay on Crimes and Punishments
The principle that an accused person should be judged by persons of equal social standing.
It is an admirable law which ordains, that every man shall be tried by his peers;
Dissertations on Early Law and Custom
Feudal legal principle that a person's judges must be persons of the same rank or relation to a common superior.
The principle is expressed in a phrase familiar to us, that every man must be tried by his peers, which originally meant that his judges were the entire body of persons standing in the same degree of relation with himself to some superior above.
Magna Carta: A Commentary on the Great Charter of King John
The principle, embodied in chapters 21 and 39 of Magna Carta, that earls, barons, and freemen were to be judged or amerced only by their equals.
Earls and barons are not to be amerced except by their peers (per pares suos), and the natural place for these “equals” of a Crown vassal to assemble for this purpose would be the Commune Concilium.