scholarly journals Waiving Jury Deliberation

2020 ◽  
Vol 46 (1) ◽  
pp. 181-204
Author(s):  
Andrei Poama ◽  

This article argues that, given the current pervasive uncertainty about the reliability of jury deliberation, we ought to treat it with epistemic humility. I further argue that epistemic humility should be expressed and enforced by turning jury deliberation from a mandatory rule of the jury trial to a waivable right of the defendant. I consider two main objections to my argument: the first one concerns the putative self-defeatingness of humility attitudes; the second objection points to the burdensomeness of granting an unconditional jury deliberation waiver to the defendant.

2002 ◽  
Vol 66 (4) ◽  
pp. 338-358
Author(s):  
Paul Robertshaw

This article considers one chapter, on the jury, of the 12-chapter Criminal Courts Review Report, published following Auld LJ's review of the English criminal courts. Coverage of each of the topics in the article includes research proposals. First the appropriate size of the jury is addressed. Under the rubric of jury composition, reservations concerning disabilities are noted. The article then considers ethnic minority representation in detail. In the context of jury composition in serious fraud/complex trials a managerial experiment is proposed, together with four variants in the make-up of the jury. In the discussion on reasoned and perverse verdicts the approach of the Review is countered and two constructive alternatives are suggested. Similarly, the article puts forward a development in research method on jury deliberation, which was never within that considered by the Review. Finally, the jury trial is relocated in a constitutional framework and the article provides two perspectives on jury trial as a right, which under current circumstances should be settled by referendum.


Author(s):  
Margaret Jane Radin

Boilerplate—the fine-print terms and conditions that we become subject to when we click “I agree” online, rent an apartment, or enter an employment contract, for example—pervades all aspects of our modern lives. On a daily basis, most of us accept boilerplate provisions without realizing that should a dispute arise about a purchased good or service, the nonnegotiable boilerplate terms can deprive us of our right to jury trial and relieve providers of responsibility for harm. Boilerplate is the first comprehensive treatment of the problems posed by the increasing use of these terms, demonstrating how their use has degraded traditional notions of consent, agreement, and contract, and sacrificed core rights whose loss threatens the democratic order. This book examines attempts to justify the use of boilerplate provisions by claiming either that recipients freely consent to them or that economic efficiency demands them, and it finds these justifications wanting. It argues that our courts, legislatures, and regulatory agencies have fallen short in their evaluation and oversight of the use of boilerplate clauses. To improve legal evaluation of boilerplate, the book offers a new analytical framework, one that takes into account the nature of the rights affected, the quality of the recipient's consent, and the extent of the use of these terms. It goes on to offer possibilities for new methods of boilerplate evaluation and control, and concludes by discussing positive steps that NGOs, legislators, regulators, courts, and scholars could take to bring about better practices.


Author(s):  
Rafael Komiljonov

The article examines the Genesis of the institution of jury trial in the Russian Empire from the moment of its introduction to the end of the Provisional government. It is noted that the emergence of a trial with the participation of jurors was influenced by Western models of the judicial process, and the forms of participation of citizens in the administration of justice that previously existed on the territory of the Russian state were taken into account. The role that the jury system has played with some success in the search for truth, justice, and the implementation of effective and independent justice in the past centuries is particularly highlighted.


Author(s):  
Jeremy Horder

The criminal law has the resources to address corruption in politics, if prosecutors are willing to use it, and if courts are willing to interpret it so that it provides adequate coverage of wrongdoing, particularly wrongdoing in the form of personal corruption engaged in by Members of Parliament. There needs to be a greater willingness to expose the worst corrupt wrongdoers in high office to the risk of judgment at the bar of public opinion, in the form of jury trial. The offence of misconduct in office provides the most appropriate means of doing this. This is not just because it is likely to provide the most appropriate label, but because the offence highlights the constitutionally fundamental bond of trust between the citizen and the state that is broken when officials indulge in corruption.


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