- Thread starter
- Staff
- #1
Dadparvar
Staff member
- Nov 11, 2016
- 10,405
- 0
- 6
The United Kingdom on Tuesday unveiled its reform plans to scrap jury trials for crimes with an expected sentence of less than three years. The measure aims to reduce a “record backlog of cases” in the criminal justice system, which is estimated to rise to 100,000 cases by 2028.
In his announcement, Deputy Prime Minister and Secretary of State for Justice David Lammy highlighted numerous issues in the current system. He stated that “victims are waiting far too long to get their case to court,” with some waiting as long as “three or four years.” He described the “bold” reforms as “necessary to tackle the emergency in our courts” and deliver justice to victims.
Under the plan, the establishment of “swift courts” will address this issue, with a single judge hearing any case that carries a sentence of less than three years. This is predicted to “take 20% less time than a jury trial.” Other measures include conducting judge-only trials for complex financial and fraud cases, empowering magistrates to confer sentences of 18 months, and allowing courts to determine where cases are heard. The government estimates that these measures will affect a quarter of cases that would otherwise have gone before a jury.
The British legal community has criticized the measures. In particular, Vice President of the Law Society Brett Dixon said that the “government’s proposals go too far in eroding our fundamental right to be judged by a jury of our own peers.” The Free Speech Union, a free speech rights organization, similarly expressed concern that data shows acquittal rates from 2017 to 2025 are 10 percent higher before crown court juries compared to magistrates’ courts (with a bigger gap for speech-related cases).
The government’s measures are informed by the recommendations from a report by Sir Brian Leveson, former president of the Queen’s Bench Division. In Part 1 of his review, Leveson claimed that “there exists no constitutional or indeed any form of general common law right to trial by judge and jury” from either Magna Carta or the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR). This is, however, debated. Part 2 of the review remains to be published.
The post UK jury trials for crimes with sentences under 3 years to be dropped appeared first on JURIST - News.
Continue reading...
Note: We don't have any responsibilities about this news. Its been posted here by Feed Reader and we had no controls and checking on it. And because News posted here will be deleted automatically after 21 days, threads are closed so that no one spend time to post and discuss here. You can always check the source and discuss in their site.
In his announcement, Deputy Prime Minister and Secretary of State for Justice David Lammy highlighted numerous issues in the current system. He stated that “victims are waiting far too long to get their case to court,” with some waiting as long as “three or four years.” He described the “bold” reforms as “necessary to tackle the emergency in our courts” and deliver justice to victims.
Under the plan, the establishment of “swift courts” will address this issue, with a single judge hearing any case that carries a sentence of less than three years. This is predicted to “take 20% less time than a jury trial.” Other measures include conducting judge-only trials for complex financial and fraud cases, empowering magistrates to confer sentences of 18 months, and allowing courts to determine where cases are heard. The government estimates that these measures will affect a quarter of cases that would otherwise have gone before a jury.
The British legal community has criticized the measures. In particular, Vice President of the Law Society Brett Dixon said that the “government’s proposals go too far in eroding our fundamental right to be judged by a jury of our own peers.” The Free Speech Union, a free speech rights organization, similarly expressed concern that data shows acquittal rates from 2017 to 2025 are 10 percent higher before crown court juries compared to magistrates’ courts (with a bigger gap for speech-related cases).
The government’s measures are informed by the recommendations from a report by Sir Brian Leveson, former president of the Queen’s Bench Division. In Part 1 of his review, Leveson claimed that “there exists no constitutional or indeed any form of general common law right to trial by judge and jury” from either Magna Carta or the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR). This is, however, debated. Part 2 of the review remains to be published.
The post UK jury trials for crimes with sentences under 3 years to be dropped appeared first on JURIST - News.
Continue reading...
Note: We don't have any responsibilities about this news. Its been posted here by Feed Reader and we had no controls and checking on it. And because News posted here will be deleted automatically after 21 days, threads are closed so that no one spend time to post and discuss here. You can always check the source and discuss in their site.