Word: carolingian
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...size; whoever had the candle that lasted longest was the winner. In Borneo the opponents poured lime juice on two shellfish; the decision depended on which fish squirmed first. Though some of the roots of the jury system can be traced back more than a thousand years to the Carolingian kings of Continental Europe, such alternatives as trial by combat and trial by ordeal endured for centuries. Today the idea of trial by jury is enshrined in several guarantees of the U.S. Constitution. The Sixth Amendment, for one, gives criminal defendants "the right to a speedy and public trial...