Seventh Amendment

Seventh Amendment, amendment (1791) to the Constitution of the United States, part of the Bill of Rights, that formally established the rules governing civil trials. The amendment’s objective was to preserve a distinction between the responsibilities of the courts (such as deciding matters of law) and those of juries (such as deciding matters of fact). Many of the Seventh Amendment’s provisions were rooted in the English common-law tradition, and over time they have experienced only...