New Jersey Quotes
there shall be in every court, three justices or commissioners, who shall sit with the twelve men of the neighborhood, with them to hear all causes, and to assist the said twelve men of the neighborhood in case of law; and that they the said justices shall pronounce such judgment as they shall receive from, and be directed by the said twelve men in whom only the judgment resides, and not otherwise.
This is one of the earliest American articulation of the 12 man jury.
Charter [Constitution] of West New Jersey, 1776
Sourced by: Eigen's Political and Historical Quotations
This is a very important and fundamental quotation. Jefferson, John Adams, John Jay and many other Founding Fathers told us that the jury of peers was the final arbiter of a court case. However, many modern judges and legislatures have tried to erode that principle. In most states judges instructs juries that they are the final arbiter of the facts but he/she is the final arbiter of the law and how it should be applied in the case. But the founders wanted the jury to be the final arbiters of the law as well as the facts as is illustrated here and in {640587} and {640589}. For a more modern concurring view, see {640590}.
Some democratic cultures are very distrustful of government bureaucracies and prefer to resolve conflicts through the courts where the process in in general much more transparent. The U. S. is not the only example. Israel is even more litigious.
Sealed under duress and later repudiated by the King with Papal assistance. Prior to Magna Carta, anyone with a civil suit had to take his case to the King's court which moved about as the King traveled. This set the precedent of a fixed court for a jurisdiction, something we totally take for granted today." John Lackland
This constitution is erroneously described as the first written constitution in America. It was the first written by whites, but the Iroquois Indians had written a formal constitution over 100 years earlier. This particular clause is fascinating as part of the separation between church and state debate. In this first constitution, legislation was to be the law of the land, not religious law. However, if the legislation were silent on the issue, then religious law was to govern. Thus, neither side in the debate choose to quote it very often, as it only gives them half a victory.
New Jersey is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern regions of the United States. It is bordered on the north and east by the state of New York; on the east, southeast, and south by the Atlantic Ocean; on the west by the Delaware River and Pennsylvania; and on the southwest by Delaware Bay and the State of Delaware. New Jersey is the fourth-smallest state by area but the 11th-most populous, with 8,882,190 residents as of 2019 and an area of 8,722.58 square miles, making it the most densely populated of the 50 U.S. states. The capital is Trenton, while the largest city is Newark. All but one county in New Jersey (Warren County) lie within the combined statistical areas of New York City or Philadelphia; consequently, the state's largest metropolitan area falls within Greater New York.
