Comments on: Jury Trial in Japan

By: Beowulf Lee

Beowulf Lee — Tue, 11 Aug 2009 09:48:10 +0000

The whole point of the jury system is so that puppet judges don’t go around condemning anyone the government doesn’t like. I don’t know about this “democratizing the justice system”; the judicial department is only supposed to INTERPRET the law. In the best case scenario, you’ll only need one judge for that. Democracy is more up to congress/parliament that MAKE the laws.

I found this quip the most interesting issue: “Polls taken in Japan suggest that, similar to other developed jury systems, 70 percent of the population of Japan is reluctant to serve as a juror.[6] The Japanese culture has been introduced to mock trials over recent years to overcome their reluctance to express public opinion, debate and defy authority figures.[2]”

By: Marigold Ran

Marigold Ran — Fri, 07 Aug 2009 01:15:18 +0000

Wait, wait, what? Japan hasn’t had a jury system for the last 50 years? When I first read the article I thought Japan had “reformed” its jury system but now I’ve understood the sentence “Japan will have its first post-war jury trial on Monday….”

I thought trial-by-jury came hand-in-hand with democracy. Weird. But I think trial-by-jury is a great idea! I’d hate to be tried by a group of judges because they could be influenced by powerful outside interests and/or be bribed. That happens a lot in China and India.

By: Leslie

Leslie — Thu, 06 Aug 2009 08:59:21 +0000

Hi..
On a side note completely unrelated, I just saw posters of the 2009 Singapore Toys and Comics Convention..
I just wanted to know anyone going?

Leslie

By: Not really anonymous

Not really anonymous — Wed, 05 Aug 2009 15:21:54 +0000

Tangentially related, mangas about the lay judge system:
http://neojaponisme.com/2009/03/24/trial-by-cartoon/

By: andreas

andreas — Wed, 05 Aug 2009 07:59:17 +0000

Seems americans really like their jury system…

Personaly i’m glad we don’t have one. I wouldn’t exactly want to be judged (though considering they only deal with murder and stuff i don’t think i’ll get into that situtation. Though it’s espacially bad if the accusations are false…)

But more than that, i have the general opinion that people are stupid. I don’t want them to judge. Easy as that.

I imagine most jurys to be like the one in “12 angry men” without the architect…

By: h2osprey

h2osprey — Wed, 05 Aug 2009 05:45:38 +0000

Given the very nature of the jury system, it is inevitable that in a predominantly-white society, a random sample of the population will give you a predominantly-white jury. Of course whether this proportion is still far in excess of the actual proportion of whites in the population (or, more pertinently, whether the minorities are in fact under-represented) is another issue altogether. Which is the crux of this whole matter, really – as you mentioned, jury duty entails a certain amount of risk, which many are unwilling to bear (much a member of a minority!) The risk of suffering reprecussions is indeed a thorny issue with the jury system.

By: Jury Trial in Japan – Ramblings of DarkMirage « Betsuni

Jury Trial in Japan – Ramblings of DarkMirage « Betsuni — Wed, 05 Aug 2009 03:07:38 +0000

[…] via Jury Trial in Japan – Ramblings of DarkMirage. […]

By: wren ng thornton

wren ng thornton — Tue, 04 Aug 2009 21:37:15 +0000

As Kyuusai says, the US judicial system was set up primarily to thwart tyranny and the spectre of the British judicial system which did not look kindly on the sorts of folks who left for the New World. At least to some extent it’s worked (we don’t have the stereotype of the sneering judge giving the death sentence for every crime), though the bit about a jury of “peers” is very hit-or-miss. One of the big problems with the US judicial system is how jurors are selected. From a pool of candidates each juror can come up with some reason why they cannot serve, and those who are incapable of making adequate excuses are then filtered by the two lawyers to remove anyone who may side with their opposition. Are those who survive these three culling processes really representative of our “peers”? Minorities in particular will highlight that juries are predominantly white, which in turn affects rulings where racial profiling or prejudice were involved. Schooling and parenting are easily turned to valid excuses. And while every citizen shall be summoned for jury duty, there’s nothing that ensures that every citizen shall actually serve on a jury.

By: Kyuusai

Kyuusai — Tue, 04 Aug 2009 20:16:41 +0000

In this case, it really isn’t democratization. It’s along those lines, sure, but it’s more about, as it’s put here, a jury of “peers”.

In short, judges should be arbitrators, and not a different class of person, in terms of decision-making power and in the complexity of law. Even in the US, the power afforded to judges makes them a different class of person in their courtrooms. The jury is a failsafe. Sure, some other countries do OK without them most of the time, but I’m sure I don’t have to dig up examples where the line has been stepped over.

The real difference in mindset here is that, historically (if not in current practice), people in the US tend to prefer thwarting the possibility of tyranny to better efficiency.

By: omo

omo — Tue, 04 Aug 2009 15:52:10 +0000

I had this long thing written up but it was lost. so I’ll keep it short the second time.

1. Democracy has its place in a legal system. The question is how to add to it without making the cogworks of a legal system slow down (by much).

2. You are kind of right, if I read you, that “it doesn’t really matter” in the end. But how you came to it is wrong. For starters Judges are NO WAY representative of society at large. If you want that kind of a thing in the legal system, a lay jury is necessary. But of course with that comes with baggage too, as lay juries generally kinda suck at giving good decisions, and the ball (by design) falls in the hand of the attorneys more so than a judge-rule system where the judge knows much better.

3. But that can all be accounted for, and since in America lawsuits are so systematic, it’s really no big deal. Japan just has a different take to lawsuits so they take it much more seriously.