[9] Editor's Note: (The following was not in Spooner's addition) With the ratification of Article XIX of amendment to the Constitution for the United States, August 20, 1920, women were fully enfranchised with all rights of voting and jury service in all states of the Union.
CHAPTER VII. ILLEGAL JUDGES
IT is a principle of Magna Carta, and therefore of the trial by jury, (for all parts of Magna Carta must be construed together,) that no judge or other officer appointed by the king, shall preside in jury trials, in criminal cases, or "pleas of the crown."
This provision is contained in the great charters of both John and Henry, and is second in importance only to the provision guaranteeing the trial by jury, of which it is really a part. Consequently, without the observance of this prohibition, there can be no genuine or legal that is, common law trial by jury. At the common law, all officers who held jury trials, whether in civil or criminal cases, were chosen by the people. [1]
But previous to Magna Carta, the kings had adapted the practice of sending officers of their own appointment, called justices, into the counties, to hold jury trials in some cases; and Magna Carta authorizes this practice to be continued so far as it relates to three kinds of civil actions, to wit: "novel disseisin, mort de ancestor, and darrein presentment;" [2] but specially forbids its being extended to criminal cases, or pleas of the crown.
This prohibition is in these words:
"Nullus vicecomes, constabularius, coronator, vel alii balivi nostri, teneant placita coronae nostrae." (No sheriff, constable, coroner, or other our bailiffs, shall hold pleas of our crown.) John's Charter, ch. 53, Henry's ditto, ch. 17.
Some persons seem to have supposed that this was a prohibition merely upon officers bearing the specific names of "sheriffs, constables, coroners and bailiffs," to hold criminal trials. But such is not the meaning. If it were, the name could be changed, and the thing retained; and thus the prohibition be evaded. The prohibition applies (as will presently be seen) to all officers of the king whatsoever; and it sets up a distinction between officers of the king, ("our bailiffs,") and officers chosen by the people.
The prohibition upon the king's justices sitting in criminal trials, is included in the words "vel alii balivi nostri," (or other our bailiffs.) The word bailif was anciently a sort of general name for judicial officers and persons employed in and about the administration of justice. In modern times its use, as applied to the higher grades of judicial officers, has been superseded by other words; and it therefore now, more generally, if not universally, signifies an executive or police officer, a servant of courts, rather than one whose functions are purely judicial.
The word is a French word, brought into England by the Normans.