ABSTRACT
Penny Darbyshire, 'The lamp that shows that freedom lives-is it worth the candle?' [1991] Crim LR 740-52
In this paper I hope to examine some of the commonly held beliefs and assumptions which underline traditional and oft-repeated adulation of jury trial. I take as my starting point Ashworth's 1979 plea on the criminal justice system that we 'should devote some time to reflection on the theory behind it all'. Theory, says Ashworth, 'is essential, because social and legal arrangements-especially in so sensitive an area as criminal justice-need to be justified if they are to be acceptable'. Ashworth suggests, and I accept for the purposes of this paper, that the general justifying aim of the administration of criminal justice is that the guilty should be detected, convicted and duly sentenced, which he calls, for convenience, 'crime control'.
