I’ve heard this phrase a lot in the ongoing debate about losing or paring back some of our civil liberties, but where does this phrase come from? Is it official doctrine? Was this concept central to the design of our judicial system? Or was it just the creation of an editorial writer, ala “Yes Virginia there is a Santa Claus”
According to this
http://jetdeng.top263.net/economics/steven/Justice�XPriced%20to%20Sell.htm
it was William Blackstone, saying ‘ten men,’ but the rest of
the adage is intact.
I don’t doubt that Blackstone made this statement, but I believe that axiom was old long before Blackstone’s birth. I’m pretty sure that the (Eastern) Roman emperor Justinian said the same thing, when he introduced his famous legal code.