The Institutionalization of Conflict: Jury Acquittals

Abstract

Legal systems, like other social systems, sometimes adjust to the circumstances of human life otherwise than through the procedures for controlled change explicitly built into them. One primary way is through the institutionalization of powers, rights, privileges, and duties that engender conflict for individuals who must reach their decisions with respect to such powers, rights, privileges, and duties. A prime example is the jury role in acquittals. The obligation to defer to the court's instructions, while binding on the juror, exists side by side with a protected power and privilege to override that obligation. The result is the legitimated interposition of the juror's judgment between the consequences of the court's instructions and the fate of the defendant. There follows the possibility of a justified departure from rules by agents acting in role, a possibility that may serve social ends of major significance.