12 March 2021
With the legal system suffering from an ever-growing backlog of cases, the challenges presented by jury trials have raised questions over their suitability for the COVID-19 era.
However, we should be wary of writing them off too quickly, as they remain fundamental in upholding the rule of law, writes James Harper of LexisNexis in this week’s NLJ.
In particular, Harper points out that jury trials are arguably the only part of the criminal justice system in which defendants from Black, Asian and minority ethnic communities are not negatively impacted, with studies showing that juries are more likely to treat defendants the same, regardless of race.
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