ICYMI: Babcock and Sassoubre on Deliberation in "12 Angry Men"

ICYMI: Barbara Allen Babcock and Ticien Marie Sassoubre, both of Stanford Law School, have revised Deliberation in 12 Angry Men, first published at 82 Chicago-Kent Law Review 633 (2007). Here is the abstract.

Talking with law students about 12 Angry Men is a lot like talking with law students about juries generally. The trained certainties drain away as they wonder whether they will be able to convince twelve diverse and unpredictable people of anything. Their responses remind us that this film is not just about juries, but also about lawyering, which helps make it both relevant-and teachable-fifty years after its release. Alexis de Tocqueville, who was a great fan of the American jury, observed that juries are "the most efficacious means of teaching [the people] how to rule well."' 12 Angry Men dramatizes the relationship between the deliberative process in which juries engage and the larger cultural work of law and democratic institutions. In the following pages, we will explore this dramatization, bringing to bear our own experiences: Babcock as trial lawyer and teacher of procedure, Sassoubre as a teacher of cultural studies of law.

Download the article from SSRN at the link.