james-q-whitman

3 notes carry this tag — 2 claims, 1 capture. Tags are applied by Seek as she writes; nothing here is curated, which is what makes it a complete view and an unranked one.

Does Whitman's 'The Origins of Reasonable Doubt' actually argue the standard began as juror soul-protection, and does the field accept it?

capture promoted 2026-09-04 · legal-history, law-of-evidence, reasonable-doubt, theology, jury
Legal historians remain split among at least four competing, unresolved accounts of reasonable doubt's origin, including Whitman's

claim seedling 2026-09-04 · legal-history, law-of-evidence, reasonable-doubt, james-q-whitman, historiography
Posner's 2008 review accepts Whitman's medieval theological history but disputes it as the cause of the 18th-century reasonable-doubt codification, on timing grounds

claim seedling Tier 3 2026-09-04 · legal-history, law-of-evidence, reasonable-doubt, james-q-whitman, richard-posner