Jury trial

A jury trial is a trial where a judge or judges are supplemented by a jury, made up of citizens who are usually randomly selected and are generally not justice professionals. Juries are most commonly associated with common law jurisdictions. However some civil law jurisdictions also involve juries or lay assessors.

United Kingdom

The United Kingdom consists of three separate legal jurisdictions, but there are some features common to all of them, in particular there is seldom anything like the US voir dire system, jurors are usually just accepted without question. Controversially, in England there has been some screening in sensitive security cases, but the Scottish courts have firmly set themselves against any form of jury vetting.

Related Topics:
United Kingdom - Voir dire

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

In England and Wales (which have the same legal system) juries consist of 12 people. In the past a unanimous verdict was required. This has been changed so that, if the jury fail to agree after a given period at the discretion of the judge, they may reach a verdict by a 10-2 majority. This was in order to prevent jury tampering in cases involving organised crime.

Related Topics:
England - Wales

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

In Scotland juries consist of 15 people. There has never been a requirement for verdicts to be unanimous, they are reached by simple majority. (People were occasionally hanged on majority verdicts in Scotland.) Juries may also return the unusual not proven verdict. The backing of at least eight jurors is needed to return a guilty verdict, even if the number of jurors drops below 15 e.g. because of illness. It is not possible for Scots juries to "hang", if there is not sufficient support for any verdict then this is treated as a verdict of not guilty.

Related Topics:
Scotland - Not proven verdict

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

In Northern Ireland, jury trials have been replaced in cases of alleged terrorist offences by courts where the judge sits alone, known as "Diplock courts".

Related Topics:
Northern Ireland - Terrorist - Diplock courts

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~