Why Juries? Explaining the Prevalence of Juries around the World.

This paper focuses on one of the most powerful forms of civic participationâ??lay juries as decision-makers in criminal trials. My research examines countries that have some form of the jury as a part of their criminal justice system either currently or in the past. My main research questions are what factors account for the success or failure of a jury system in a country and how juries are tied to democracy. This paper explores those issues, especially the ways in which lay participation in criminal trials is seen as a mechanism of protecting citizens from abuses of power by the state or as a mechanism of racism and inequality. I argue that the perception of juries in a society, and thus the success of a jury system, is primarily dependent on past experiences with the jury, the racial make-up of the society, and perceptions of the judiciary. Although there are other factors that affect whether a country utilizes the jury system, such as whether it is a former British colony and whether it is based on the Common Law tradition, these factors are secondary to the bigger societal factors. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]