[Coco] Amazing!

Chuck Youse cyouse at serialtechnologies.com
Sun Aug 31 21:00:20 EDT 2008


On Sun, 2008-08-31 at 20:47 -0400, mike delyea wrote:
> The name Norman-French is sometimes used to describe not only the
> modern Norman language, but also the administrative languages of
> Anglo-Norman and Law French used in England.
> 
> ETYMOLOGY:
> Voir Dire - Anglo-Norman, to speak the truth

Indeed, but my point was that "voir" in modern French means "to see",
not "truth".  As such most French speakers are inclined to misinterpret
the phrase.

But yes, our legal system in the US is based on British common law just
as the Canadian one is, and juries here are subjected to voir dire
during the selection process.  Though whether juries are comprised of
"peers" is often a subject of debate - the common wisdom (in THIS
country anyway) is that jurors are people too stupid to dodge jury
duty. :)

C.





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