The English Jury System

From A History of the English-Speaking Peoples by Winston Churchill "The jury system has come to stand for all we mean by English justice, because so long as a case has to be scrutinised by twelve honest men, defendant and plaintiff alike have a safeguard from arbitrary perversion of the law. It is this which distinguishes the law administered in English courts from Continental legal systems based on Roman law. Thus amidst the great process of centralisation [during the reign of Henry II] the old principle was preserved and endures to this day, that law flows from the people and is not given by the King."