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Organizations, Decisions, and Courts

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 July 2024

Lawrence B. Mohr
Lawrence B. Mohr*
Affiliation:
The University of Michigan
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Extract

Courts are supposed in common law countries to operate by adversary adjudication. Until a few years ago I, for one, thought that they did. Apart from radio, TV, and the movies, which reinforce this symbol with all their might, my only exposure to courts was as a juror in a case of the alleged theft of one used automobile battery. We deliberated long and found the defendant (who was surely guilty of something!) to be not guilty. I took for granted that my experience was an example of typical practice. It never occurred to me to reflect upon the size of the taxpayers' bill if there were to be a trial of this sort for every crime of this magnitude. Nor did I suspect that I could be witnessing an exception rather than the rule, the exception being a jury trial, since my only contact with a court was in the capacity of juror.

Type
Research Article
Information
Law & Society Review , Volume 10 , Issue 4 , Summer 1976 , pp. 621 - 642
Copyright
Copyright © 1976 The Law and Society Association.

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Footnotes

*

I am most grateful for comments and criticisms by J. Eisenstein, M. Heumann, H. Jacob, and, particularly, M. Galanter.

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