Legal Definitions - judicum sortitio

Judicum sortitio is a historical legal concept originating from Roman law. It refers to the practice of selecting jurors for a trial by randomly drawing their names from a pool of eligible citizens, often from an urn or similar container.

• Example 1: Modern Jury Pool Selection

  Imagine a contemporary courthouse where hundreds of citizens have been summoned for jury duty. To begin the process of seating a jury for a specific trial, a court clerk might randomly draw juror numbers from a spinning drum or use a computer program to randomly select individuals from the larger pool. These selected individuals are then called forward for further questioning. This initial random drawing of names or numbers from an eligible group to serve a judicial function directly reflects the principle of judicum sortitio.

• Example 2: Citizen's Assembly for Policy Deliberation

  A national government decides to form a "Citizen's Assembly" to deliberate on a contentious environmental policy. To ensure the assembly is representative and unbiased, they compile a comprehensive list of all adult citizens and then randomly select 100 individuals from this list to participate. These randomly chosen citizens are tasked with studying the issue and making recommendations. This method of selecting a deliberative body through pure chance from a broad pool of eligible participants is an application of the judicum sortitio concept.

• Example 3: Selection for an Impartial Review Board

  A professional licensing body needs to establish an impartial review board to hear appeals against disciplinary decisions. To prevent any perception of bias, they decide to select the three members of the board by randomly drawing names from a list of all eligible, qualified professionals who have no direct conflict of interest with the cases under review. This random selection process for a critical, impartial role mirrors the ancient practice of judicum sortitio.