There were two choices available, and the different choice made by English and Continental law remains the most prominent difference between the two to the present day. The English option stemmed from the fact that Henry II instituted a working system of evidence evaluation. This was the jury, in the form later known as the grand jury, or jury of presentment. Its original purpose was to decide whether the evidence was strong enough to proceed to the ordeal. The evidence was to be evaluated more or less freely, not by the judge but by a panel of men to whom the accused could not reasonably
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