A Distinct Judicial Power: The Origins of an Independent Judiciary, 1606-1787A Distinct Judicial Power: The Origins of an Independent Judiciary, 1606-1787, by Scott Douglas Gerber, provides the first comprehensive critical analysis of the origins of judicial independence in the United States. Part I examines the political theory of an independent judiciary. Gerber begins chapter 1 by tracing the intellectual origins of a distinct judicial power from Aristotle's theory of a mixed constitution to John Adams's modifications of Montesquieu. Chapter 2 describes the debates during the framing and ratification of the federal Constitution regarding the independence of the federal judiciary. Part II, the bulk of the book, chronicles how each of the original thirteen states and their colonial antecedents treated their respective judiciaries. This portion, presented in thirteen separate chapters, brings together a wealth of information (charters, instructions, statutes, etc.) about the judicial power between 1606 and 1787, and sometimes beyond. Part III, the concluding segment, explores the influence the colonial and early state experiences had on the federal model that followed and on the nature of the regime itself. It explains how the political theory of an independent judiciary examined in Part I, and the various experiences of the original thirteen states and their colonial antecedents chronicled in Part II, culminated in Article III of the U.S. Constitution. It also explains how the principle of judicial independence embodied by Article III made the doctrine of judicial review possible, and committed that doctrine to the protection of individual rights. |
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1776 constitution Adams’s administration of justice appointed Article assembly authority behavior bill chancery charter chief justice civil Colonial Records commission common pleas Concessions and Agreements Congress Connecticut Constitution of 1776 convention county courts court judges court of common crown in council decision Declaration of Independence Declaration of Rights Delaware disputes editor’s elected enacted England established exercised Federal Constitution Georgia governor and council Hampshire Constitution impeachment independent judiciary inferior courts instructions issued James Jersey John Adams judicial independence judicial power judicial review judiciary jurisdiction jury King legislature Leonard Woods Labaree Letter liberty lords proprietors Madison Maryland North Carolina note 42 organic law Origins of Judicial peace Penn Pennsylvania political pounds president province Records of North reprinted Rhode Island royal governors salaries senate separation of powers served South South Carolina Constitution state’s statute Sunstein supra note supra note 18 supreme court Tushnet U.S. Constitution Virginia William York