ABSTRACT
In the English legal system, over a million crimes are dealt with by courts every year yet virtually no one who is found guilty is found guilty by the state. Over 99.99 per cent of convictions are made by lay magistrates or jurors. British life has given to the world a number of prized institutions. Somecommentators have even called for right of an accused to be tried by a jury to be formalised into a human right. The jury is generally seen as a desirable feature of the British constitution. The law concerning juries is consolidated in the Juries Act 1974. Juries are used in all three main parts of the legal system: the criminal process, the civil process and the coronial process. In England and Wales, a large number of people with extensive knowledge of the criminal justice system: legal academics, law students and civil servants working in criminal justice, currently do jury service.
