Juries can apply discretion and equity without creating binding precedent

Evidence

“The jury … represents an impressive way of building discretion, equity, and flexibility into a legal system. Not the least of its advantages is that the jury, relieved of the burdens of creating precedent, can bend the law without breaking it.” -Harry Kalven and Hans Zeisel, legal scholars “Jurymen seldom convict a person they like, or acquit one that they dislike. — G. Alan Tarr, Judicial Process and Judicial…, 885

Categorization

• DEFINE: Captures the defining functional advantage of the jury versus the judge: flexibility without precedent.
• ADDENDUM: Relevant to the immodesty article’s theme of informal social adjudication contrasted with formal code.
• SEED: Angle: jury nullification as institutionalized discretion — why we tolerate law-bending rather than law-breaking.
• XREF: connects to: Because juries create no precedent, they can bend the law without breaking it. — G. Alan Tarr, Judicial Process and Judicial…, 1448; Judicial rulings can set legal obligations without settling disputed public policy — G. Alan Tarr, Judicial Process and Judicial…, 207; Judicial discretion is channeled by constraints, not eliminated. — G. Alan Tarr, Judicial Process and Judicial…, 188 (+4 more)

Broader Connections

• Because juries create no precedent, they can bend the law without breaking it. #corroborates (0.95) — G. Alan Tarr, Judicial Process and Judicial…, 1448
• Equity’s jury-free flexibilities powered major late-nineteenth century judicial interventions. #exemplifies (0.80) — Lawrence M. Friedman, A History of American Law, 2310
• Judicial rulings can set legal obligations without settling disputed public policy #expands (0.78) — G. Alan Tarr, Judicial Process and Judicial…, 207
• Judicial discretion is channeled by constraints, not eliminated. #qualifies (0.74) — G. Alan Tarr, Judicial Process and Judicial…, 188