Overview

Almost every society has professional judges, but from ancient Athens to modern Asia, cultures have wanted ordinary people involved in legal decisions. The use of juries comes with challenges; societies must determine how to select jurors, what cases jurors should decide and by what rules, and how to inform jurors about the law and evidence. This Very Short Introduction shows how and why societies around the world have used juries, charting the spread of the twelve-person jury from England to the British colonies in America, Canada, India, Australia, New Zealand, and the Caribbean. In criminal cases, use of lay jurors has stretched to nations in Europe, Latin America, and Asia as they aspire to democracy, greater popular participation in government, and legitimacy of the justice system. But in English-speaking countries, jury trials are declining. Civil juries have been virtually abolished everywhere except the United States, and even there they are rare. In criminal cases, plea bargaining is now taking the place of jury trials. In this book, Ren�e Lettow Lerner describes the benefits and challenges of using juries, including jury nullification, and considers how innovations from non-English-speaking countries may be key to the survival of lay participation.

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"Renee Lettow Lerner is the Donald Phillip Rothschild Research Professor of Law at George Washington University Law School. After graduating from Yale Law School, she was a law clerk to Justice Anthony M. Kennedy of the US Supreme Court and to Judge Stephen F. Williams of the US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. From 2003 to 2005, she served as Deputy Assistant Attorney General in the Office of Legal Counsel at the US Department of Justice. She was a witness in a murder case in Paris, France, before a mixed panel of professional judges and lay jurors. Lerner is the author of History of the Common Law: The Development of Anglo-American Legal Institutions. Cathi Colas is an audiobook narrator with a ton of life experience behind her. She brings that experience to create a true air of authenticity to all her narrations. She has over fifty audiobooks out there in the world. She also works as an audiobook coach and home studio consultant for Suchavoice, a voice-over training and demo production company. Cathi worked in ""military intelligence"" for the United States Air Force back in the day of the dinosaur. She was a drummer in a band for years. She taught yoga to the masses. However, for her, storytelling has been the best gig yet and she puts everything she has into every book she narrates. When she isn't narrating, coaching, or editing, she rides horses up in the foothills of Colorado."

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