The jury in the European legal systems starting from the 19th century: a comparison

The civil law and the common law do not share a lot of similarities, the civil law system being of an inquisitorial nature, while the common law is characterized by its adversarial system. Initially the jury was an invention of the common law with roots that go back to the end of the 12th century, starting from the 19th century Europe faced a deep change at the political and at the legal level, influenced by the French revolution and its idea of liberty, the jury system originally exclusively found in the common law migrated to civil law countries. This system has been implemented differently in different countries. This research paper will compare the evolution of these jury systems in England, France, Germany, and Italy, shedding a light on the characteristics of each system and the similarities between the legal systems. First by discussing the history of the implementation of this system within each legal system (in the case of England, the creation of the jury system and not the implementation), then by pointing out the characteristics of each legal system throughout the centuries starting from the 19th century until the 21st, and finally by comparing these legal systems with other systems that were already put in place during the same period. This research will initially focus on the creation of the first ever jury system at the end of the 12th century , with a special focus on the Constitution as well as the Assize of Clarendon, then it will shed a light on the jury system in England at the end of the 18th and 19th century, France with its implementation of the jury system during the French revolution of 1789, Germany with its implementation of the jury system after the French conquest, and Italy with its implementation of the jury system in 1848. This paper will discuss the continuity of each of these systems during the 20th century as well as the 21st century.