The General Court of the Plymouth Colony instituted a legal code, the first composed in North America, on October 4, 1636. It guaranteed citizens a trial by jury and stipulated that all laws were to be made with the consent of the freemen of the colony. The "General Fundamentals" of the Plymouth Colony are printed in The Book of the General Laws of the Inhabitants of the Jurisdiction of New-Plimouth, one of the oldest items in the collection of laws in the Library of Congress.