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5 Or. L. Rev. 185 (1925-1926)
Abolition of Jury Trial in Civil Cases

handle is hein.journals/orglr5 and id is 191 raw text is: OREGON LAW REVIEW ABOLITION OF JURY TRIAL IN CIVIL CASES1 RUPERT BULLIVANT Human institutions, of necessity, are fallible; and man is prone to criticize and to suggest substitutions or altera- tions. Yet it is only through criticism and change that the flaws in existing things are pointed out and progress is accomplished. However, because of this ease of criticism, one who takes upon himself such a role is often received with sus- picion. Certainly one who assumes to find fault with a feature of our first courts which has been termed the bul- wark of our liberties, the protection of the citizens' rights, and which has been eulogized by orators and writers as one of the outstanding institutions of the American people, is bound to encounter much astonish- ment and opposition. Yet, it is my purpose to point out wherein the jury system in civil cases has totally failed and to advocate its abolition. An English judge, when asked by a visiting American jurist why they did not do away with the clumsy English system of barristers and solicitors, quite indignantly answered: Why, we have always had it. This repre- sents the attitude of most Americans to the trial jury, and the fact that we have always had it is the only justification for retaining the system, if justification it is. The jury system should be abolished in civil cases. (1) It has outlived its purpose as a political protection; (2) it has proved to be grossly inefficient; (3) the judge should be substituted for it as a trier of facts. These are the three points that will be brought out in the course of the argument. Just as in earlier times the ordeal and the trial by battle were discarded as a means of trial because they had out- grown their usefulness, because the divine power did not infallibly or even frequently interfere on the side of the just, so also must the jury be discarded as an unjust means of trial. 1 Winning argument in the Hilton contest on this subject. 2 Member of 3rd year class, University of Oregon law school. 185

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