Jury selection is laid down in the Juries Act 1994. While it is proven that there are reasonable alternatives to a jury trial and that there is no doubt that jury trial is both time consuming and expensive when compared with trial by magistrates or by a judge alone, however the right to a jury trial shall not be dismissed so lightly. The anti jury lobby deems the jury system unpopular the importance of which is considered only overrated. I will be critically analysing whether trial by jury should be abolished in the UK legal system plus evaluating the advantages and disadvantages of the system.
Lord Devlin was quoted as saying the jury system is "the lamp that shows that freedom lives". A Jury can decide cases on their idea of fairness, e.g. R v Ponting [1984] civil servant leaked info to a MP on the ground of public interest, jury refused to convict despite no legal defence. Juries are seen as the essence of citizenship, the involvement of ordinary people in government, and in this sense essential to Tony Blair's 'vision'. The jury provides people with experience of the justice system, an educative process inspiring people with confidence that the justice system is working properly. However, this theory is not backed-up by the fact that nearly everyone who is called to do jury service does their level- best to get out of it. Part of the reason is the inadequate recompense, the long waits, abrupt adjournments and inconvenient rescheduling.
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