The Political Institutions and Theories of the Hindus: A Study in Comparative Politics c10.s4.t2.1

c10.s4.t2.1

The institution could not but influence the political thinking of the philosophers. Śukra and other writers on the theory of the constitution have therefore naturally been the spokesmen of the philosophy that underlies the English Assizes and the Fehmic Courts of Westphalia. The principle of trial by one's peers is thus stated in the *Śukra-nîti*: ¹ "The foresters are to be tried with the help of foresters, merchants by merchants, and soldiers by soldiers." Śukra lays down also the principle of local judges for local cases in the following terms: "In the village the cases are to be settled by persons who live with both parties, i. e. by neighbours. Those persons are the best judges of the merits of the case who live in the place where the two parties stand, and where the disputed matters and grounds of quarrel exist."²