JURISPRUDENCE. The Latin word predeutia (contracted from peoridatio) came, by a natural transition, to mean knowledge or under standiey. " Habebet " (says Nepal, ' Life of Chnou; c. 2) " magnain prudentiant tum jurie chili.* tom red militarist" hence persons skilled in the Roman law were called j atria predentes, or simply prudextes ; In the mane manner they were called remold, as well as Jeri, toxemia. (ltwte!d'. • Lineament& both. Juris Romani,' lib. iv., cap. 5; lingo, • (Jeachichte des Iternischen Itechta; p. 458, ed. xi.) A large part of the Ronan law was gradually adopted by the legislature and the judicea from the writing] of the jurists : the emperors moreover ;sometimes eppointad persons whose opinions (or response) the judex was bound to fellow. (D. 1. 2. 2, 5, 7, and 35. 47; ' Inst.' 1. 2. 8.) According to the soteptation of the term predem or jai, priulem in the Roman law, Peri. predeatia is sometimes limited to the dexterity of D practical lawyer in applying rules of law to individual CMOs • whence the technical use of the term jerispredemee in the French legal Language for law founded on judicial decisions, or on the writings of jurist& By Fraerei jorisprmideere Is properly meant the science or philosophy of lenitive law, as distinguished from particular jurupredeure, or the knewledge of the law of a determinate nation. " General jurisprudence, or the philosophy of positive law, is not concerned directly with the sesame of legisletion : It Is concerned directly with principle] and ds.tinctien which are common to various systems of 'articular and positive law, and which each of throe various systems Inevitably In volves, let It he worthy of praise or Marne, or let it accord or not with as ammo.) ressanire or tat. General jurisprudenee Is concerned with law as It neawassaly I., rather than with law as It ought to be; with Lw as It nuns be, be it goad or bad. rather than with law as it must be, if it be good." (Anethie ' Outline of a Course of Lecture* on General Jori.pnelence; p. 3.) For ciample, every system of positive law must Involve such notions OA sovereignty, legal right, legal duty, legal sanction. civil or criminal Injury, the grounds of Imputation or legal twit, and of noo-impntation or legal Innocence, property, poems.
don, &c., which therefore belong to the province of general juris prudence. [Law ; A treatise on genera jinispnidence does not fall within the scope of this Cyclopedia. A detailed, precise, and lucid descrip tion of theprovince of general jurisprudence will be found iu Mr. Austin's work on the subject (8vo., London, 1832), and the nunexod outline of a course of lectures. Bentham's "fruit& de Logislation ' also contain much valuable matter relating to this subject. A list of works on general jurisprudence may be men in Krug's Philosophisches Lexicon,' in the article Reekelehre.
JURY (in Engliall law) is • term denoting an assembly of men authorised to inquire into or determine facts, and bound in both C.M5(..,1 by an oath to the faithful discharge of their duty. The etymological derivation of the term is obviously from juro, to swear, whence we find this institution called in forensic Latin jurata, mid the persons emu.
• posing It farad ; in French, la jails ; and in English, the jury. When the object is inquiry only, this tribunal is sometimes called an inquest or Inquisition, as in the instance of a grand jury or coroner's inquest ; but when facts are to be detemzined by it for judicial purposes it is always styled a jury. When the trial by jury is spoken of in popular Language at the present day, it signifies the determination of facts in the administration of civil or criminal justice by twelve men sworn to decide facts truly according to the evidenceproduced before them.
Inquiry into facts on behalf of the crown by means of juries was frequent in England long before the trial by jury was commonly used in courts of justice for judicial purposes. Thus we find, immediately after the Conquest, inquisitions ad quad damnunt (which anciently took place in all grants by the crown, though now of more limited use); inquisitions past morteni, which were instituted on the death of the king's tenants, to ascertain of what lands they died seised ; inqui• eitions of lunacy (de hieratic° ingniremmdo); and several other inquests, which were called inquests of office, and took place whore the crown was concerned in interest : all of these inquiries wero made by means of juries of the neighbourhood,who were presumed to be necessarily con versant with the facts. So in England also in the reign of John, when the lands of the Normans were seised into the hands of the king, inqui sitions by jury were executed in each county to ascertain their value and incidents. (Hardy's ' Rotuli Normadie,' vol. 1, p. 122.) Besides these juries of inquiry (inquisitoria jurata), there were accu satory juries ( jetrata delatorat), who presented offences committed within their district or ward, hundred, or county, to the king or his commissioned justices. These inquests were immediately connected with the administration of justice, their duty being to charge offenders, who, upon such accusation, were put Upon their trial before judges, and were afterwards condemned or " delivered " by them according to the result of the trial. Though the character, incidents, and duties of these accusatory juries in early times are involved in much obscurity, there is little doubt that they formed the origin of our present grand juries.