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Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: And, for this reason, in early society, the tribunal that determined the fact also pronounced the judgment. 3. Formation of Representative Assemblies. ? It is obvious, as the society enlarges, either by the absorption or compulsory union of many families under one head, or their voluntary union in a sept or tribe, which according to the best authorities is the way in which societies are formed,1 there must be a supreme representative body required to adjudicate on matters concerning members of the different groups. It is also obvious from the manner in which such a body is originated that its legislative function will not at first be called into use; for the different groups composing it have their own sets of usages, which to them are law, and administered by the head of each. Its primaly use will therefore be as a sort of Council of Arbitration, for the decision of matters in controversy between members of different groups, and the vindication of personal wrongs. The idea of a public wrong ? a crime ? is more slowly acquired, and only subsequently developed. If the powers of this body must be described by modern names that which lies most in the background is legislative power, that which is most distinctly conceived is judicial powev.. The laws obeyed are regarded as having always existed, and usages really new are confounded with the really old. 3 4. The Character of Early Tribunals. .? That early popular assemblies had this judicial character is abundantly evidenced in the records of those states whose history is known to nsTJ The Athenian Ekklesia, the Roman Co- mitia, and the popular assemblies of the Tentonic nations, are well-known examples. The collective body of these assemblies, in the nature of arbitration, decided judicially, and tried offenders as a cou...

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