At face value: Should a jury warning about the risks of assessing credibility from demeanour be mandatory in criminal jury trials?

<p>In E (CA799/2012) v R [2013] NZCA 678 the Court of Appeal directly confronted the issue of whether demeanour warnings should be required in all criminal jury trials. Such a warning would alert a jury to the risks of using demeanour to assess credibility. While science has shown that demeanour is an unreliable tool for assessing credibility, the Court decided that a demeanour warning was not always required. As such, the law appears to be out of step with contemporary science. This article contrasts the traditional approach to the usefulness of demeanour evidence in criminal jury trials with a more modern understanding of its actual usefulness. Drawing on both social science and case authorities, this paper will critically evaluate the Court’s approach to this issue. The conclusion is reached that a demeanour warning actually should be mandatory in all criminal jury trials.</p>

At face value: Should a jury warning about the risks of assessing credibility from demeanour be mandatory in criminal jury trials?

<p>In E (CA799/2012) v R [2013] NZCA 678 the Court of Appeal directly confronted the issue of whether demeanour warnings should be required in all criminal jury trials. Such a warning would alert a jury to the risks of using demeanour to assess credibility. While science has shown that demeanour is an unreliable tool for assessing credibility, the Court decided that a demeanour warning was not always required. As such, the law appears to be out of step with contemporary science. This article contrasts the traditional approach to the usefulness of demeanour evidence in criminal jury trials with a more modern understanding of its actual usefulness. Drawing on both social science and case authorities, this paper will critically evaluate the Court’s approach to this issue. The conclusion is reached that a demeanour warning actually should be mandatory in all criminal jury trials.</p>

Towards the optimal structure of judicial system: peer review of the book “The Dynamics of Judicial Transformations in Russia in the late XIX – early XXI centuries (historical and legal research)” by V. M. Bolshakova

The subject of this research is the peer review of the monograph by Valentina Mikhailovna Bolshakova on the topic &ldquo;Dynamics of Judicial Reforms in Russia in the late XIX &ndash; early XXI centuries (historical and legal research)&rdquo; published in 2021. The author underlines the timeliness, relevance, structure and main findings of the monograph, and indicates that this work is an important stage in the development of theoretical-methodological grounds for the improvement of modern judicial system in the Russian Federation. The conducted analysis allows assessing the monograph by V. M. Bolshakova as a fundamental study of the domestic judicial system for over a century-long period. The book introduces a new scientific direction in the history of state and law &ndash; tracing the dynamics of transformations of government bodies in a particular country for an extensive historical period. This direction suggest comprehensive analysis of not only the overall dynamics of judicial transformations, but also their causes, problems of implementation, results, as well as examination of judicial legislation, principles of organization of the judicial system, its elements, evolution of separate institutions, and periodization. For the first time in scientific literature, in the context of tracing the dynamics of the Russian judicial transformations, analysis of is conducted on the international court of justice, jury trials, bailiffs, and appeals using the methodology of chrono-discrete mono-geographic comparative jurisprudence.

"I Think She's Learnt Her Lesson": Juror Use of Cultural Misconceptions in Sexual Violence Trials

The extent to which decision-making in sexual violence jury trials is impacted by culturally embedded misconceptions is not well understood. In this article, we provide an insight into the views of 121 real jurors in 18 sexual violence trials, illustrating that rape myth acceptance scales give an incomplete view of when and how jurors might be influenced by cultural misconceptions. Prompted in part by the behaviour and tactics of counsel, jurors in real trials often expect complainants to fight back and to report sexual offending immediately. They also have expectations of complainants and defendants that derive from misconceptions about "real rape". While our study confirms that jurors are susceptible to cultural misconceptions, it also demonstrates the complexity of assessing the extent of their influence and the difficulties in designing reforms to reduce their use.

The role of public prosecutors in jury trials: the experience of the Russian Federation and the People’s Republic of China

The article discusses the development of jury trials in Russia and China, the results of the work of the state prosecution in Russian jury trials on the basis of data from form No. 1 of the statistical reporting of the Judicial Department at the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation over the past decade. The author provides statistical indicators confi rming the growing popularity of jury trials in Russia. The results of the return of criminal cases by the courts to the prosecutor in accordance with Art. 237 of the Code of Criminal Procedure of the Russian Federation, as indicators of the effectiveness of the prosecutor’s work in courtare discussed.The article touches upon the problem of a stable increase in the number of acquitted persons in jury trials over the past 10 years. The ways of solving the current situation within the framework of the development of the system of jurors and the institution of public prosecution in the Russian Federation are proposed, which may be an experience for China.

Syntactic Expression of Logical Topos in the Speeches of Russian Lawyers of the Late 19th and Early 20th Century

In the article, we make an attempt to relate logical topoi, rhetorical figures, and syntactic constructions. The research is based on the court speeches of Russian lawyers of late 19th and early 20th century. This period is considered to be the Golden Age of the Russian lawyer eloquence, thus the speeches delivered at that time by famous Russian lawyers in jury trials are of particular interest for the analysis. The speeches were chosen at random as the focus was not on the orators’ individual style but on their general strategies of syntactic expression of topoi. Although topoi have been an indispensable part of rhetorical invention since Antiquity, there still exists a discrepancy in their interpretation. In different time periods, they were regarded as the source of arguments, as clichés and even as themes that can be modified depending on orator’s objectives. In the article, we focus on the approach, which involves trichotomic classification, which includes logical topoi that are connected with logical operations. The most common topoi in lawyers speeches are those of time and place and genus and species . Within the framework of our study, they are analyzed in terms of logical operations and set theory, as well as structural schemes of sentences which were further connected with respective rhetorical figures (their functions being described for each case). The structural schemes’ analysis we used follow the principles described in Russian Grammar (1980). In the final part of the article, the results of the study are summarized. Logical operations typical for the topoi of time and place and genus and species are provided along with the most common syntactic schemes of sentences and rhetorical figures. We believe that this approach to the analysis of topoi can be beneficial both in theoretical and practical perspective and can be common to analyze the logical basis of lawyers’ argumentation, the major component of their eloquence.

Review of Criminal Cases Containing Justifiable Defense Attributes in Jury Trials

In the article deficiencies in the judicially investigation practice during the juridical estimation of the matters about the necessary defense are revealed, the reasons for this phenomenon are analyzed and it is proposed to examine the matters of this category concerning the required participation of the jurors of assessors.