Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 11.djvu/377

* JURY. 345 JtrS PBIM^ NOCTIS. selection of the jury is made subject to the di- rection of the presiding judge. The names of the jurymen are drawn by lot by the clerk of the court, and as their names are called the jurjiuen take their seats in the jury box until twelve are thus chosen. The parties to the action or their attorneys may then e.vercise their right to eliminate undesirable members from the jury by means of challenge. (See Challenge.) Either party is at liberty to examine the jurors for the purpose of ascertaining whether cause for challenge in any particular case exists. After a satisfactory jury has been drawn, the jury is sworn and the trial is begun. (.See Trial. ) The •attorney for the prosecution in a criminal case, or for the plaintiff' or for whichever party has the affirmative in a civil action, then opens the case by a brief address to the jury, outlining the facts which he intends to prove. He then calls his witnesses, who are ex- amined by him and cross-examined by opposing counsel. The attorney for the defendant then calls his witnesses, who are examined and cross- examined in like manner. In general, during the progress of a trial, all questions of law- are to be determined by tlie court and questions of fact by the jury. The limits of the inquiry as to facts are determined by the pleadings (q.v. ) and the rules of evidence (q.v.). Whether evidence is properly admissible or not is a question for the court ; but the weight and credibility of the evidence admitted are to be determined by the jury. The court, however, may decide a question of fact without sending the question to the jury, if there is no conllict of evidence on the point. The court may also intt rpret written instruments received in evidence without the aid of the jury. After all the evidence has been given, if a case is made for the jury (that is, if there is con- flicting evidence or a doubtful question of fact), the counsel for the defendant 'sums up' (that is, addresses the jury, reviewing the evidence in the case and commenting upon it in a manner favorable to his side of the case) ; he is fol- lowed in like manner by counsel for the plaintiff or prosecution, as the case may be. The judge then makes his charge to the jury. The charge is a statement of the rules of law applicable to the evidence in the case, and it is given for the purpose of aiding the jury to render a correct verdict. If properly given it leaves all question of fact to be determined by the jury, thus fre- quently requiring nice discrimination on the part of the presiding judge. The jury then retires from the courtroom and is locked into a room until an agreement as to the verdict is reached, or until the presiding judge deems it improbable that an agreement will be reached. In case no agreement is reached, a new trial may be had. Even in a criminal case such a new trial is not deemed double jeopardy (q.v.). All the twelve members of a jur^' must agree upon a verdict, which in a civil trial may he 'for the plaintiff' or 'for the defendant.' and in a criminal trial 'guilty' or 'not guilty.' The verdict of a jury is decisive, and cannot be disturbed unless ren- dered contrary to law or against the weight of evidence, in which case it may be set aside by the presiding judge, or the judgment rendered thereon may be set aside on appeal. When the jurors return a verdict which is obviously op- posed to the principles of right and justice it is now sometimes called a false verdict, although that expression is really contradictory, since verdict means literally, as it formerly did prac- tically, a 'true dictum' or saying. See Vebdict. In certain cases, where there is no serious dis- pute of fact, but the question involved is one of law, the jury is allowed, on consent of the par- ties or direction of the court, to find a special verdict which is merely a statement of the facts of the case. This special verdict is then sub- mitted to and decided by the court.- Special juries (that is, juries specially select- ed in order to secure jurymen of more than com- mon intelligence) were known at common law and were expressly authorized by the statute 3 Geo. II., ch. 25. Statutes in many of our States now provide for the selection of special juries for the trial of cases of great importance or difficulty. For the consideration of grand jury, see that title m the vocabulan-. Consult: Pollock and ilaitland. History of English Law (2d ed., London and Boston, 1899) ; Stubbs, Constitutional History of England (Ox- ford, 1878-83) ; Lesser, Historical Deielopment of the Jury System ( 1893 ). JURY. A contrivance designed temporarily to replace the regular fitting of a ship which has been lost or received such serious injury as to be useless; as jury-mast, jury-rig, jury-rudder, jury-anchor, etc. JUS ACCRESCENDI. See Survivorship. JUS GENTIUM (Lat., law of nations). By (he Romans the term -ivas used to designate uni- versal law, and included all those rules which were observed by all the nations with w-hich they were acquainted. This body of law included not only what we should call rnles of interna- tional law, such as the inviolability of envoys, but also rules of commercial law-, such as the rule that sale and delivery transfers ownership. For the relation of jus gentium to the Roman national law, see Civil Law'. In the Middle Ages jus gentium acquired the narrower meaning of the body of rules observed by independent States in their intercourse with each other, i.e. international law (q.v.). JUS NATUR.aE, or NATURALE (Lat., law of nature). Literally, the law of nature or natural law. By the Romans, this term was sometimes used as equivalent to jus gentium, since the rules observed by all nations were pre- sumably natural rules. Under the influence of the Stoic philosophy, however, they frequently used the terra in a purely ethical sense and con- trasted natural law, in the sense of natural right or justice. •iith those rules which, although universally observed, seemed to them wrong and unreasonable. See X.TL"r.AL Law. JUS PRIM^ NOCTIS (Lat.. right of the first night). The alleged custom according to which the feudal lord had the right to have inter- course on the first night with the bride of his newly married villein. This custom -n-as said to have originated in Scotland, and at one time to have been very prevalent in certain regions of France; but there is not sufficient documentary evidence to show that it existed a'nyvhere else. It is even doubtful whether it existed in Scotland and France, thouch Grimm. Deutsche Rechtsalter- tiimer (3d ed.. Giittingen. ISSll. intimates that the payment made by the villein to his lord to obtain the latter's consent for his marriage owed its origin to a desire of the villein to buy