With our understanding of the probable kin-based organization of the Nephites as we have seen throughout their history, we can make some assumptions of how these judges were selected. Since they assembled “in bodies,” they were not a single large gathering. All people belonged to kin groups (which would also be geographic groupings), a more logical structure than, say, churches, since not everybody belonged to churches.
If they gathered as kin, then each kin group would recommend a judge who was related to them. As a kinsman, he would protect the interests of his kin against another judge who might favor his own kin but who would, in turn, be checked by equally alert judges. Thus, there would be rough assurance that the common good would be served.
This general structural organization persisted through to Aztec times: “Each district or calpulli in the capital had its own chief, the calpullec, who was elected for life, preferably from the same family, by the inhabitants, and confirmed by the emperor,” comments Soustelle. “He had a council of elders, the ueuetque [sic, better heuehuetque, the ‘old ones, elders’] who were probably the oldest and best-known heads of families and he never did anything without taking the opinion of the elders.”
While this Aztec chief leader is not necessarily the same as the judges in the Aztec empire, the principle for electing leaders on the basis of kin affiliation closely resembles the same principle that Mosiah’s people would have used.