Majority Verdicts

Majority Verdicts
Author: New South Wales. Law Reform Commission
Publisher:
Total Pages: 100
Release: 2005
Genre: Criminal procedure
ISBN: 9780734726193

It is generally considered that the requirement of unanimity results in more hung juries than does the alternative system of requiring only a majority of jurors to agree on a verdict. What constitutes a majority differs between jurisdictions that have embraced the concept, and may also depend on the type of offence being tried. This Report examines arguments for and against preserving the unanimity rule.

American Juries

American Juries
Author: Neil Vidmar
Publisher: Prometheus Books
Total Pages: 428
Release: 2009-09-25
Genre: Law
ISBN: 1615929878

This monumental and comprehensive volume reviews more than 50 years of empirical research on civil and criminal juries and returns a verdict that strongly supports the jury system.

Majority Decisions

Majority Decisions
Author: Stéphanie Novak
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 271
Release: 2014-06-30
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 1139917102

This book presents the most complete set of analytical, normative, and historical discussions of majority decision making to date. One chapter critically addresses the social-choice approach to majority decisions, whereas another presents an alternative to that approach. Extensive case studies discuss majority voting in the choice of religion in early modern Switzerland, majority voting in nested assemblies such as the French Estates-General and the Federal Convention, majority voting in federally organized countries, qualified majority voting in the European Union Council of Ministers, and majority voting on juries. Other chapters address the relation between majority decisions and cognitive diversity, the causal origin of majority decisions, and the pathologies of majority decision making. Two chapters, finally, discuss the counter-majoritarian role of courts that exercise judicial review. The editorial Introduction surveys conceptual, causal, and normative issues that arise in the theory and practice of majority decisions.

Jury Decision Making

Jury Decision Making
Author: Dennis J. Devine
Publisher: NYU Press
Total Pages: 286
Release: 2012-08-06
Genre: Psychology
ISBN: 0814725228

While jury decision making has received considerable attention from social scientists, there have been few efforts to systematically pull together all the pieces of this research. In Jury Decision Making, Dennis J. Devine examines over 50 years of research on juries and offers a "big picture" overview of the field. The volume summarizes existing theories of jury decision making and identifies what we have learned about jury behavior, including the effects of specific courtroom practices, the nature of the trial, the characteristics of the participants, and the evidence itself. Making use of those foundations, Devine offers a new integrated theory of jury decision making that addresses both individual jurors and juries as a whole and discusses its ramifications for the courts. Providing a unique combination of broad scope, extensive coverage of the empirical research conducted over the last half century, and theory advancement, this accessible and engaging volume offers "one-stop shopping" for scholars, students, legal professionals, and those who simply wish to better understand how well the jury system works.

Jury Directions

Jury Directions
Author: New South Wales. Law Reform Commission
Publisher:
Total Pages: 203
Release: 2012
Genre: Instructions to juries
ISBN: 9780734726803

This report is about the directions that judges give to juries in the course of a criminal trail, and particularly at the summing up. These directions are designed to help jurors understand as much of the law and the issues that arise in the case as they need to make proper use of the evidence and to reach a verdict.

Impeachment

Impeachment
Author: Raoul Berger
Publisher: Harvard University Press
Total Pages: 416
Release: 1974
Genre: Law
ISBN: 9780674444782

The little understood yet great power of impeachment lodged in the Congress is dissected in this text through history by Raoul Berger, a leading scholar on the subject. He sheds new light on whether impeachment is limited to indictable crimes, on whether there is jurisdiction to impeach for misconduct outside office, and on whether impeachment must precede indictment. Berger also finds firm footing in contesting the views of one-time Judge Robert Bork and President Nixon's lawyer, James St Clair.

The Place of the Explained Verdict in the English Criminal Justice System: Decision-making and Criminal Trials

The Place of the Explained Verdict in the English Criminal Justice System: Decision-making and Criminal Trials
Author: Bethel G. A. Erastus-Obilo
Publisher: Universal-Publishers
Total Pages: 348
Release: 2008-10-30
Genre:
ISBN: 1599426897

Lay participation in the criminal justice process in the form of a jury is a celebrated phenomenon throughout the common law jurisdictions. While not claiming credit for its origin, England, as the latent cradle of the modern jury, disseminated this mode

Choosing for Juries

Choosing for Juries
Author: Nazim Ziyadov
Publisher: Maklu
Total Pages: 272
Release: 2013
Genre: Law
ISBN: 9046605892

Why do governments try to limit the application of jury trials, both in countries where jury trials are native and in countries that have more recently instituted them? This is a critical question today as government authorities are trying to limit the role of juries, especially when it comes to complex fraud cases, national security/terrorism cases, and cases where juries seem to have a propensity for high acquittal rates. Therefore, understanding how governments are promoting and constraining jury trials is important. This book analyzes the reasons that motivate governments to introduce jury trial practices and the factors that condition the role these types of trials play in the administration of criminal justice systems as a whole. The book's research derives its finding from the comparative analysis of criminal justice systems of the United Kingdom, the Russian Federation, and the Republic of Azerbaijan. It also assesses prospects of the application of jury trials in the Republic of Azerbaijan based on analysis of the criminal justice systems of countries where these practices already exist.