The British judiciary has a style of functioning that whenever there is a trial, as part of the process 12 people are randomly chosen to be part of the jury. Of course, not any 12 but those residential in the country (perhaps even the same county) and those who have been part of the British culture, or grown up in Britain since 13 years of age.
Anyway, those criteria apart, there is no other qualification that decides whether they are part of the jury or not. They need not be holding prestigious positions in the society or specialists in law, leave alone be highly education. Mere common folk!
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| The Jury, by John Morgan |
In his essay "The Twelve Men", dealing with this British jury system, G. K. Chesterton wrote: "Whenever our civilization wants a library to be catalogued, or a solar system discovered, or any other trifle of this kind, it uses up its specialists. But when it wishes anything done which is really serious, it collects twelve of the ordinary men standing around… The same thing was done, if I remember right, by the Founder of Christianity!”
Jesus too chose 12 men, all 'ordinary men standing around'... but it is interesting also to note, that it was those men standing around HIM; not total strangers. Those 12 were already his disciples.
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