Justice of the Peace qualifications in the Seventeenth Century

If the late 1630s approximately two-thirds of Justices of the Peace had formal legal training. They may not have practised law but they had studied at the Inns of Court. The remaining Justices of the Peace (with a few exceptions) had University degrees and had read law. Today while an increasing number of Justices of the Peace are lawyers a majority are not. Granted, Justices of the Peace sat with juries and imposed the death penalty in the Seventeenth Century but it does seem odd that modern Justices of the Peace have, in most cases, less training than they would have 400 years ago.