Consumer Law

U.S. Civil Justice - Envy of the World

By Joe Consumer

There are more suits against former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and others for detainee deaths at Guantanamo Bay, this one a wrongful death action on behalf of two prisoners who hung themselves after alleged physical and mental torture. (See our recent post about the importance of U.S. laws to remedy human rights abuses.)

And in China ? a country that, needless to say, does not provide citizens with the right to civil jury trial - hundreds of parents with children killed or injured by milk poisoned with the industrial chemical melamine, are rejecting their paltry government compensation plan, at great personal risk.  As AP wrote, ?The government's plan calls for families whose children died to receive 200,000 yuan ($29,000), while others would receive 30,000 yuan ($4,380) for serious cases of kidney stones and 2,000 yuan ($290) for less severe cases.?

As we look forward to a new Administration next week, it's worth remembering something.  As hard as Corporate America fights to severely weaken the right to civil jury trial - everything from caps on compensation to horrible ideas like "Health Courts" - they'll never succeed.  The civil jury's roots are very deep here.  American colonists fought the Revolutionary War in significant part over England's repeated attempts to restrict jury trials. The U.S. Constitution was nearly defeated over its failure to guarantee the right to civil jury trial. (The Seventh Amendment eventually resolved the problem.) Check out Supreme Court Justice William Rehnquist's dissent in Parklane Hosiery for a great history lesson. The right to jury trial has been secured by every state as well.  And if you look at countries like China, it's clear why.

Full post as published by ThePopTort on January 15, 2009 (boomark / email).