Trial By Jury in Civil Cases - Federalist #83
In Federalist #83 Alexander Hamilton discusses the right to a trial by jury.
Federalist #83
Alexander Hamilton
July 5, 1788
In Federalist #83 Alexander Hamilton responds to arguments regarding the Constitution’s wording around trial by jury.
While the Constitution says that criminal cases must be tried by a jury, civil cases are not specifically discussed.
Contemporary Anti-Federalists believed that civil cases were left out of the Constitution as an attempt to deny citizens the right to a trial by jury and give powerful businesses the opportunity to control the economy.
Federalist #83 is the longest Paper and the better part of it consists of Hamilton citing examples.
Civil Cases
Hamilton’s argument essentially boils down to the idea that civil cases can be extremely complicated and the nuance needed to determine who is in the right should often be left up to experts.
For instance, your everyday citizen might not understand the structure of certain account transactions between two major banks.
Therefore, a trial by jury would not be conducive to finding the truth in this scenario.
Left to the Legislature
Instead of inserting trial by jury for civil cases into the Constitution, Hamilton points out that this is left up to the Legislative Branch to decide.
While certain civil cases should be given a trial by jury, others should not. Allowing Congress to make this determination gives more authority to the representatives of the people.
Furthermore, the types of cases which receive a trial by jury also have the ability to change over time with the will of the people.
Liberty
Hamilton also confronts the idea of liberty in this Paper.
He suggests that criminal cases have a much larger impact on the idea of liberty than civil cases, and this is why they are specifically noted in the Constitution.
After all, if someone is convicted in a criminal case they could be sentenced to jail time...literally having their liberty taken away.
Civil cases, on the other hand, can lead to financial loss, but the person keeps their freedom.
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