Tuesday, June 21, 2005

Trial by jury

It must have been important because it was mid-afternoon when Dominique, our receptionist, put Andrew through to me.


'I see your friends across the channel are going to dump trial by jury,' he said.


'Yes,' I said. 'Lord Goldsmith doesn't think juries are capable of hearing "complex fraud" cases.'


'That's un-American!' Andrew exclaimed.


'The British have a long history of that,' I observed. 'They also managed to dispose of the principle that spouses can't be compelled to testify against each other.'


'When did they do that?'


'About thirty years ago. It's part of the ant-terrorism legislation.'


'But this trial by jury stuff is important,' Andrew protested. 'Will the change in the law pass?'


'Of course it will. Parliament is mostly made up of lawyers. What lawyer wouldn't welcome the chance of getting rid of juries?'


'Only ones who still believed in Magna Carta,' Andrew admitted.


'Can you see an alternative? The government has lost a lot of very expensive prosecutions,' I said.


'Once again,' Andrew began, 'the wrong end of the problem is being addressed. If the laws were clear, then so would their violation. Now it's not in the interest of politicians or civil servants to write laws that are easily understood because it could put a lot of people out of jobs. Given that mentality, then dumping trial by jury is perfectly logical.'


'Do you think there are cases that are too complex for juries?' I asked.


'No, but there are laws that are too complex for lawyers. You have to be able to understand something before you can explain it to someone else in your own words. If lawyers understood the laws, they could do that. Once again, it's the wrong end of the problem that they're trying to fix.'


'So, ultimately, it won't be just complex fraud trials that could be conducted without juries.'


'You've got it,' Andrew said. 'Fortunately, we're a long way from that in America.'


'But in Britain, if trial by jury is finished, what will come next?'


'HMS Pinafore,' Andrew said and hung up.