The Surprising Views of Montesquieu and Tocqueville about Juries: Juries Empower Judges

AuthorRenée Lettow Lerner
PositionDonald Phillip Rothschild Research Professor of Law, George Washington University
Pages1-55
Louisiana Law Review Louisiana Law Review
Volume 81
Number 1
Fall 2020
Article 6
12-11-2020
The Surprising Views of Montesquieu and Tocqueville about The Surprising Views of Montesquieu and Tocqueville about
Juries: Juries Empower Judges Juries: Juries Empower Judges
Renée Lettow Lerner
Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.law.lsu.edu/lalrev
Repository Citation Repository Citation
Renée Lettow Lerner,
The Surprising Views of Montesquieu and Tocqueville about Juries: Juries Empower
Judges
, 81 La. L. Rev. (2020)
Available at: https://digitalcommons.law.lsu.edu/lalrev/vol81/iss1/6
This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Law Reviews and Journals at LSU Law Digital
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The Surprising Views of Montesquieu and
Tocqueville about Juries: Juries Empower Judges
Renée Lettow Lerner*1
ABSTRACT
Both Montesquieu and Tocqueville thought that an independent
judiciary was key to maintaining a moderate government of ordered
liberty. But judicial power should not be exercised too openly, or the
people would view judges as tyrannical. In Montesquieu’s and
Tocqueville’s view, the jury was an excellent mask for the power of
judges. Both Montesquieu and Tocqueville thought that popular juries had
many weaknesses in deciding cases. But, as Tocqueville made clear, the
firm guidance of the judge in instructions on law and comments on
evidence could prevent juries from going astray and make the institution a
“free school” for democracy.
The Article explores Montesquieu’s legacy concerning judges and
juries in the arguments of both the Federalists and the Anti-Federalists. It
also examines the American antecedents of Tocqueville’s idea of the jury
as a school for democracy.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Introduction...................................................................................... 2
I. Montesquieu on Judges and Juries................................................... 7
A. Montesquieu’s Position as a Judge,
His Stay in England, and Spirit of the Laws .............................. 7
B. Professional Judges: The Key to Preserving Liberty............... 11
Copyright 2020, by RENÉE LETTOW LERNER.
* Donald Phillip Rothschild Research Professor of Law, George
Washington University. I am grateful for the comments of Donald Braman, Paul
Carrese, Bradford Clark, Robert Cottrol, Peter Hansen, John Harper, Dmitry
Karshtedt, Amalia Kessler, Cynthia Lee, Craig Lerner, Manuel Lopez, Nelson
Lund, Hank Molinengo, Sean Murphy, Richard Pierce, Edward Swaine, and
Arthur Wilmarth. Karen Wahl provided expert library assistance, at a time when
many libraries were closed.
1. This Article is intended mainly for an English-speaking audience, and so,
wherever possible, I use sources in English. Fortunately, many of the m ajor works
of French scholarship concerning Montesquieu and Tocqueville have been
translated into English.
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2 LOUISIANA LAW REVIEW [Vol. 81
C. Problems with Lay Juries......................................................... 12
D. Advantages of Lay Juries......................................................... 15
E. English Judges’ Control over Juries ........................................ 19
F. Montesquieu among the American Founders:
The Anti-Federalists and Hamilton
on Judges and Juries ................................................................ 23
II. Tocqueville on Judges and Juries................................................... 30
A. Tocqueville’s Judicial Career, Travels in America,
and Democracy in America ..................................................... 31
B. Tocqueville on the American Legal Profession....................... 35
C. Tocqueville on the Jury as a Judicial Institution...................... 38
D. Tocqueville on the Jury as a Political Institution:
“A Free School”....................................................................... 40
1 Tocqueville’s Similarity to Montesquieu,
and His New Idea.............................................................. 40
2. American Antecedents for the Idea of the
Jury as a School................................................................. 42
3. The Judge as Teacher and Firm Guide.............................. 46
E. American Transformation of Tocqueville’s Idea..................... 50
Conclusion...................................................................................... 52
INTRODUCTION
We American legal professionals think we know about Montesquieu
and Tocqueville. Or, at least, we think we know enough. Montesquieu
developed the three-fold separation of powers embodied in the structure
of the U.S. Constitution and the federal government.2 He also supported
use of lay juries.3 Tocqueville wrote that the jury is a school for
democracy.4 He also quipped that, in America, sooner or later, almost
every political question becomes a judicial question.5 The vast majority of
us stop there and call it a day, without bothering actually to read them, or,
if we do, only in tiny, isolated, and easily digested snippets.
2. CHARLES DE SECONDAT, BARON DE MONTESQUIEU, THE SPIRIT OF THE
LAWS 15657 (bk. 11, ch. 6) (Anne M. Cohler, Basia Carolyn Miller & Harold
Samuel Stone trans. & eds., 1989) (1748).
3. Id. at 158.
4. 1 ALEXIS DE TOCQUEVILLE, DE MOCRACY IN AMERICA 275 (J.P. Mayer
ed., George Lawrence trans., 1969) (1835).
5. Id. at 270.

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