Renee Lettow Lerner (George Washington) has been guest-blogging at Volokh Conspiracy on her scholarship on the Seventh Amendment and the right to jury trials in civil cases. Here are the posts:
The Uncivil Jury Part 1 — American's Misplaced Sentiment about the Civil Jury
Mike Rappaport had these posts earlier on Professor Lerner's writing in this area: here, here, here, and here.
This is a very interesting field about which I know nothing. I think this is an interesting suggesting, however (from Professor Lerner's fifth post linked above):
One possibility is to construe the Seventh Amendment, at least, not to require jury decisions in cases involving multiple parties, claims, and complicated facts and law. These types of cases were not given to ordinary lay juries “at common law.” In a future article, I’ll explain this interpretation in detail.
My guess is that our current view of when civil juries are required is not very well linked to the eighteenth-century idea of "Suits at common law," because I doubt we have a clear understanding of what that phrase meant. So this sounds like an excellent project.
Meanwhile, here is an alternative view on the merits on the civil jury (although not an originalist one).
Posted at 6:46 AM