Full Description
Although most countries around the world use professional judges, they also rely on lay citizens, untrained in the law, to decide criminal cases. The participation of lay citizens helps to incorporate community perspectives into legal outcomes and to provide greater legitimacy for the legal system and its verdicts. This book offers a comprehensive and comparative picture of how nations use lay people in legal decision-making. It provides a much-needed, in-depth analysis of the different approaches to citizen participation and considers why some countries' use of lay participation is long-standing whereas other countries alter or abandon their efforts. This book examines the many ways in which countries around the world embrace, reject, or reform the way in which they use ordinary citizens in legal decision-making.
Contents
1. Introduction Sanja Kutnjak Ivkovic', Shari Seidman Diamond, Valerie P. Hans and Nancy S. Marder; Part I. Advancements in Lay Participation: 2. The Rise of the Jury in Argentina: Evolution in Real Time Vanina G. Almeida, Denise C. Bakrokar, Mariana Bilinski, Natali D. Chizik, Andre' s Harfuch, Lilia'n Andrea Ortiz, Maria Sidonie Porterie, Aldana Romano, and Shari Seidman Diamond; 3. Twelve Years of Mixed Tribunals in Argentina Marı'a Ine' s Bergoglio; 4. Lay Participation in the Criminal Trial in Japan: A Decade of Activity and its Sociopolitical Consequences Dimitri Vanoverbeke and Hiroshi Fukurai; 5. The Korean Jury System: The First Decade Jaihyun Park; 6. The Twenty-Fifth Anniversary of the Spanish Jury Mar Jimeno-Bulnes; Part II. Enduring Systems of Lay Participation: 7. " ...And My Right": The Magistrates' Courts in England and Wales Stefan Machura; 8."In the Name of the People": Lay Assessors in Germany Stefan Machura and Christoph Rennig; 9 The Jury in Canada: Testing the Comprehensibility of Styles of Jury Instructions and the Effectiveness of Aids Marie Comiskey; Part III. Challenges to lay Participation in Law: 10. Dismissing the Jury: Mixed Courts and Lay Participation in Norway Anna Offit; 11. Trials by Peers: The Ebb and Flow of the Criminal Jury in France and Belgium Claire M. Germain; 12. The Russian Jury Trial: An Ongoing Legal and Political Experiment Nikolai Kovalev and Sergei Nasonov; 13. Trial by Jury in Georgia: A Catalyst for Evolving Independent Courts Nikolai Kovalev and Giorgi Meladze; Part IV. Global Perspectives on Lay Participation: 14. What Hollywood, USA, Teaches the World (Incorrectly and Correctly) about Juries Nancy S. Marder; 15. The Case for a Hybrid Jury in Europe John D. Jackson; 16. A Worldwide Perspective on Lay Participation Sanja Kutnjak Ivkovic' and Valerie P. Hans.
