engleski

“Defect of sex”: exclusion of women from jury service in Istria 1848-1918

Upon adopting the institution of jury from English Common Law, European continental legislation also took the view according to which jury service was reserved exclusively for men. The exclusion of women from jury service was also adopted by the Austrian legislator who explicitly prescribed male sex among the prerequisites for performing jury service. Legal theorists did not offer any explanation for such a decision, so it is most likely that it was due to the underestimating of women's intellect compared to men's, which was characteristic for this time period. Only with the expressing of demands for the introduction of jury service for women near the end of the nineteenth and beginning of the twentieth century did the opponents of these demands start to express arguments against the idea of female jurists. In this presentation I hope to compose a partial history of the construction of women as authoritative actors in the law. I shall seek to explain the reasons and arguments for the historical exclusion of women from juries. Also, this presentation will give a brief overview of the legal and social status of women in Istria, which has been in terms of legal regulation the same as in other Austrian lands. The emphasis will be placed on showing the reasons and opinions (expressed in legal literature and parliamentary debates) why women were considered incapable of performing jury service until the collapse of the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy.

Jury service; Exclusion of Women; Istria; 1848-1918

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