Jury Service for All? Analysing Lawyers as Jurors

2006 ◽  
Vol 70 (2) ◽  
pp. 163-179 ◽  
Author(s):  
R. Gwynedd Parry
Keyword(s):  
Criminal Justice ◽  
Criminal Trials ◽  
Jury Service ◽  
Jury Bias

Section 321 of and Sched. 33 to the Criminal Justice Act 2003 abolished many of the old restrictions on jury service eligibility previously contained in the Juries Act 1974. The result has been to widen significantly the pool of eligible jurors in criminal trials. This article addresses some of the implications of allowing lawyers, including members of the judiciary, to serve on juries, and considers the recent guidance issued to them in order that they perform their role as jurors appropriately. It will also reflect upon the Court of Appeal's recent ruling in R v Abdroikov and Others, which considers many of the pertinent issues, including the issue of jury bias.

scholarly journals Trial and (Potential) Error: Conflicting Visions on Reparations Within the ICC System

2018 ◽  
Vol 29 (3) ◽  
pp. 221-248 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alina Balta ◽  
Manon Bax ◽  
Rianne Letschert
Keyword(s):  
Criminal Justice ◽  
International Criminal Court ◽  
Rome Statute ◽  
International Criminal ◽  
Criminal Court ◽  
International Criminal Justice ◽  
Court Decisions ◽  
Criminal Trials ◽  
Conflict Situations ◽  
International Criminal Trials

Twenty years ago, the International Criminal Court (hereinafter ICC or the Court) was established holding the aim of placing victims at the heart of international criminal justice proceedings and delivering justice to them through, among others, reparations. Article 75 of the Rome Statute lays out the reparations regime, and, in practice, court-ordered reparations are a means of delivering such justice. Focusing on Court decisions on reparations, our analysis takes stock of all developments before the ICC and attempts to highlight the mismatch between characteristics inherent to the objectives of international criminal trials such as providing accountability and punishment of the accused and delivering justice for victims of mass crimes—the so-called procedural challenges. We also submit that the Court is facing conceptual challenges, related to an apparent misunderstanding of the various concepts at stake: reparations as such and the various modalities and channels of enforcing them. We conclude that although the ICC’s reparation regime may not be the best reparative response to provide justice to victims in conflict situations affected by mass victimization, we suggest that improving the ICC’s approach includes, at a minimum, tackling these challenges.

3. The Course of Evidence

2021 ◽  
pp. 51-83
Author(s):  
Andrew L-T Choo
Keyword(s):  
Criminal Justice ◽  
Criminal Proceedings ◽  
Criminal Trials ◽  
Trial Process

Chapter 3 examines the principles relating to the presentation of evidence in court. It first discusses the adversarial tradition upon which the English trial process is based. It then distinguishes between the principles governing the questioning of one’s own witness (which occurs in examination-in-chief and re-examination) and those governing the questioning of another party’s witness (which occurs in cross-examination). It shows that, in criminal proceedings, provisions in the Criminal Justice Act 2003 now deal with two particular matters that may arise in the course of questioning one’s own witness—the extent to which refreshing memory is permitted, and the extent to which a previous consistent statement is admissible in evidence. The chapter also considers other issues, including the judicial approach to ‘no case to answer’ submissions in criminal trials, and the extent to which the claimant or prosecution may adduce further evidence after closing its case.

s.VII Anxieties, Ch.28 Hangman’s Perspective: Three Genres of Critique following Eichmann

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mann Itamar
Keyword(s):  
Criminal Justice ◽  
Rule Of Law ◽  
International Criminal ◽  
Political Community ◽  
International Criminal Justice ◽  
Criminal Trials ◽  
The Rule Of Law ◽  
Adolf Eichmann ◽  
Object Of Study ◽  
International Criminal Trials

This chapter takes Adolf Eichmann as an object of study in subjecting international criminal trials to three types of critique. First, adopting the perspective of the rule of law, this chapter engages with Hannah Arendt’s writing on the Eichmann trial to argue that international criminal trials are constantly suspected of becoming ‘show trials’. Second, turning to Shoshana Felman’s work, the chapter identifies a genre of critique according to which international criminal justice is premised on an experience of catharsis, in which the trauma of atrocity’s victims is alleviated (constituting a post-atrocity political community). Finally, this chapter analyzes a 2010 film that reveals the trauma of the man who executed Eichmann, to show the unacknowledged risks of wielding the violence of criminal justice. Based on this ‘hangman’s perspective’, the chapter suggests assessing international criminal trials in light of questions about the transnational allocation of such risks and about preexisting inequalities—economic, ethnic, and other—that determine the roles different people will end up playing in trials.

10. The jury

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Steve Wilson ◽  
Helen Rutherford ◽  
Tony Storey ◽  
Natalie Wortley
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Ethnic Composition ◽  
Jury Trial ◽  
Criminal Trials ◽  
The Public ◽  
Advantages And Disadvantages ◽  
Jury Deliberations ◽  
Jury Trials ◽  
Jury Service ◽  
The Impact

The jury consists of twelve, randomly-selected members of the public, who decide guilt or innocence in the most serious criminal trials in the Crown Court. This ensures that the general public are represented in the criminal justice system. This chapter explains the rules on eligibility for, and disqualification or excusal from, jury service. It considers issues such as the power of the jury to acquit in defiance of the evidence (‘jury equity’); the confidentiality of jury deliberations and the implications of that for appeals; the ethnic composition of a jury; whether juries should be excluded from certain trials such as those involving serious fraud or where there is evidence of jury ‘tampering’; whether the accused should be able to ‘waive’ their right to jury trial; and the impact of social media on jury trials. It concludes by examining the relative advantages and disadvantages of jury trials.

scholarly journals Expressing what? The stigmatization of the defendant and the ICC’s institutional interests in the Ongwen case

2020 ◽  
pp. 1-23
Author(s):  
Liana Georgieva Minkova
Keyword(s):  
Criminal Justice ◽  
International Criminal ◽  
Northern Uganda ◽  
International Criminal Justice ◽  
Criminal Trials ◽  
Operation Risk ◽  
International Criminal Trials ◽  
Empirical Contribution ◽  
Selection Of

Abstract The potential of international criminal trials to express the wrongfulness of mass atrocities and instil norms of appropriate behaviour within communities has been subject to a lively theoretical debate. This article makes an important empirical contribution by examining the limitations to the expressivist aspiration of international criminal justice in the context of the message communicated by the International Criminal Court’s Office of the Prosecutor (ICC-OTP) in the Ongwen case. A detailed analysis of the selection of charges, modes of liability, and the overall presentation of the Prosecutor’s arguments at trial suggests that the ICC-OTP’s limited capabilities to apprehend suspects and its dependency on state co-operation risk the excessive stigmatization of the few defendants available for trial for the purpose of demonstrating the Court’s capability of prosecuting notorious criminals. As the only apprehended commander from the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA), Dominic Ongwen has been presented by the ICC-OTP as the ‘cause’ of crimes committed in Northern Uganda without due regard for the degree of his alleged involvement in those crimes compared to other LRA commanders, the role of other actors in the conflict, or the significance of his own victimization as a child. Ongwen’s excessive stigmatization expressed the importance of the Ugandan investigation after a decade of showing no results. Yet, it also produced a simplistic narrative which failed to express the complexity of violence in Northern Uganda.

5. Hearsay

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Maureen Spencer ◽  
John Spencer
Keyword(s):  
Criminal Justice ◽  
Criminal Trials ◽  
Questions And Answers ◽  
Flow Charts ◽  
The Law ◽  
Law Of Evidence ◽  
Hearsay Evidence ◽  
Law Commission

The Concentrate Questions and Answers series offers the best preparation for tackling exam questions. Each book includes typical questions, bullet-pointed answer plans and suggested answers, author commentary and illustrative diagrams and flow charts. This chapter focuses on the rule against hearsay, which is, historically, one of the great exclusionary rules underlying the law of evidence. In 1997 the Law Commission recommended that hearsay evidence be put on a clearer statutory footing in criminal trials. This eventually led to wholesale reform in the Criminal Justice Act (CJA) 2003, which preserves the rule but increases the number of exceptions and safeguards, providing a comprehensive regime for hearsay. The chapter provides an overview of the changes to hearsay introduced by the CJA 2003.

The Exclusion of the Clergy from Criminal Trial Juries: An Historical Perspective

1999 ◽  
Vol 5 (24) ◽  
pp. 151-163 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rosemary Pattenden
Keyword(s):  
Middle Ages ◽  
Historical Perspective ◽  
Criminal Trial ◽  
Religious Community ◽  
Religious Denomination ◽  
Criminal Trials ◽  
Religious Order ◽  
Official Report ◽  
Jury Service ◽  
History Of

Schedule 1 to the Juries Act 1974 provides that ‘[a] man in holy orders; a regular minister of any religious denomination [and] [a] vowed member of any religious order living in a monastery, convent or other religious community’ is ineligible to serve on a criminal (and also a civil) jury. This has been the law since 1972. For the remainder of this century members of the clergy have been eligible, but not compellable, jurors. In practice they did not serve. The change effected in 1972 is a reversion to the position which probably prevailed in the Middle Ages. Aside from the occasional official report, the liability of religious functionaries to serve on juries in criminal trials has been rarely written about. The last time it happened was in 1882. The object of this article is to fill the lacuna by tracing the history of the clergy's ineligibility for jury service in criminal trials and the reasons for it.

Victims' Participation in International Criminal Proceedings Beyond Mere Witnesses

2019 ◽  
pp. 153-196
Keyword(s):  
Criminal Justice ◽  
Sexual Violence ◽  
International Criminal ◽  
Critical Evaluation ◽  
International Criminal Justice ◽  
Criminal Proceedings ◽  
Criminal Trials ◽  
Conflict Situations ◽  
Depth Analysis ◽  
Unique Nature

This chapter elaborates upon the framework set forth in the preceding chapter about the unique nature of sexual violence as a tactic of war and implications of this for the victims' needs to examine the limitations and challenges in addressing these needs within the context of the international criminal trials. The discussion offers a critical evaluation of the effectiveness of the growing victim-oriented approach in international criminal justice in responding to the needs of victims of conflict-related mass sexual violence. It presents an in-depth analysis of the procedural, legal, and practical aspects of the growing trend of victims' participation in international criminal justice proceedings, as currently being developed by the ICC, highlighting issues impeding its effectiveness in advancing effective redress for victims of sexual violence in conflict situations. This chapter argues that, while the growing victims' inclusion in the international criminal process remains a significant component of comprehensive victim-focused responses, it risks failing to consider the contextual dynamics surrounding the plight of victims of conflict-related sexual violence during and after conflicts, thereby falling short of providing effective responses to the needs of victims.

Working Cooperatively with Other Criminal Justice Institutions

2019 ◽  
pp. 231-254
Author(s):  
Carolyn Hoyle ◽  
Mai Sato
Keyword(s):  
Criminal Justice ◽  
Criminal Justice System ◽  
Justice System ◽  
Criminal Cases ◽  
Decision Frames ◽  
Court Of Appeal ◽  
Jury Bias

This chapter examines how the Criminal Cases Review Commission works with two members of the criminal justice system in conducting investigations: the police and the Court of Appeal. It analyses a variety of cases, including those rare cases where the Commission uses its powers — under section 19 of the Criminal Appeal Act 1995 — to appoint an investigating officer to carry out enquiries to assist in the exercise of any of its functions. The chapter shows how the Commission deals with the investigating officer in section 19 cases and how it incorporates the results of the investigation into its decision on whether or not to refer a case back to the Court. It also explores the Commission's decision frames when it manages a section 19 investigation and when it works for the Court on section 15 investigations. Finally, it looks at section 15 investigations that involved alleged jury bias or misconduct.

scholarly journals Why Do Criminal Trials ‘Crack’? An Empirical Investigation of Late Guilty Pleas in Hong Kong

2018 ◽  
Vol 13 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-25 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kevin Kwok-yin CHENG ◽  
Wing Hong CHUI ◽  
Simon N M YOUNG ◽  
Rebecca ONG
Keyword(s):  
Hong Kong ◽  
Criminal Justice ◽  
Empirical Investigation ◽  
Publicly Funded ◽  
Criminal Trials ◽  
Mixed Methods Approach ◽  
Public Resources ◽  
Societal Problem ◽  
Justice Process ◽  
Criminal Justice Process

Abstract‘Cracked trials’, where defendants enter a late guilty plea after a trial date has been set, are considered a societal problem because public resources set aside for trials are wasted. Various government reports attribute the main cause to tactical defendants playing the system, and reforms have been initiated to encourage early guilty pleas and strongly discourage late ones. The aim of the present study is to investigate the reasons for cracked trials in the Hong Kong context, insofar as the reasons for late guilty pleas can be investigated without the influence of reforms seen in other jurisdictions used to discourage late pleas. A mixed methods approach of courtroom observations and interviews with defendants was adopted. We find that defendants who were represented by publicly-funded lawyers or who were in prolonged pre-trial detention were more disposed to changing their pleas. Subsequent interviews illustrate why these factors are salient. The findings support the notion that it is the pressures of the criminal justice process that lead defendants to ‘crack’ and highlight the costs to defendants for decisions on how to plead that are influenced by considerations other than actual culpability.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document