The Province of Judge and Jury

The distinction between law and equity was entirely a product of history. The next doctrine that distributes decision-making power between a judge and a jury, the law versus fact distinction, is partly historical as well.  But, when history and precedent provide no answer, the court system sometimes considers function to allocate power.  That is, the courts attempt to reason based on the perceived competencies of judges versus juries.  Note that some (most, really) of the courts' reasoning in this area is the stuff of fantasy.  For example, decades of rigorous social science has decimated the court system's perceptions of competencies of both judges and juries vis-a-vis separating mistaken or false live testimony from accurate and truthful live testimony.  Unsurprisingly, the conclusive empiricism in this area has had no effect on the court system's certainty regarding judge and jury competencies.