James Bradley Thayer (1831-1902) was a professor at Harvard Law School from 1873 to his death in 1902. In 1898 he published a famous treatise on the law of evidence that began with a history of the jury trial. As he writes in a "Preface":
"By tracing the development of trial by jury, the author has endeavored to throw light on the beginnings and true character of our rules of evidence; by a more accurate analysis and a fuller illustration than is common, of the distinction between law and fact, to make plainer the respective functions of the jury and the court; and by an investigation of certain important topics, ordinarily, but, as it is believed, improperly treated as belonging to the law of evidence, to discriminate them from that part of the law, and set them in their proper place."
Other chapters cover the difference between law and fact, judicial notice, presumptions, burdens of proof, best evidence, etcetera.
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