juries would decide whether to prosecute, which were the fact of the matter, and whether a conviction should follow. Though less notorious, in civil cases the same distinction between a judge charged
with ensuring justice (the Continent), and a judge that oversaw procedure (mainly pleading) and delegated decision making in juries (England), held true.
These differences, however, did not imply that the system that emerged in England was completely new. Many historians point, for example, to the striking similarities between common and ancient Roman law. They suggest that in both places conflict resolution and the courts were at the center of the legal system. In both places, trials were conceptually divided between a first stage, in which the debated question between the parties was framed (before a praetor in Rome, and during pleading before a judge in England), and a second stage, in which nonprofessionals (iudex in Rome, jurors in England) evaluated the facts of the matter and rendered judgm