Читать книгу American Democracy in Context - Joseph A. Pika - Страница 156

1 Might the use of jurors in Japan lead to greater protection of civil liberties? If so, how?

2 What do you think of the concern that randomly selected jurors in Japan are not qualified to decide complicated cases? Is that a valid concern for American juries?

3 The right to trial by jury in criminal cases is a guarantee of the Sixth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution. Why is that right so important?

We take jury trials for granted, but they are largely a by-product of the common law system that originated in England. Many other countries with a civil law tradition (where law is codified in statutes rather than being based on legal precedents) do not have trial by jury. This includes countries such as France, Germany, and Italy. Others, such as Japan, have only recently instituted jury trials in some cases (see “Picture Yourself”).