because justice must not depend on any preexisting hierarchy
This makes sense to me in the context of humans committing natural crimes, but not in the context of multinational corporations squabbling over IP. The very concept of ideas as defensible property depends on a pre-existing hierarchy.
As an aside, the fact that these things are decided by juries is nuts to me. Why should the average Joe who needs help installing a printer be compelled to miss work to decide multibillion dollar lawsuits that are deeply technical? I understand the right to a jury if you are accused of murder, but for patent cases it just seems asinine.