ABSTRACT
In response to the democratic principle ‘justice by the people and for the people’, many jurisdictions worldwide choose to use the jury trial. European juries differ from Anglo-American juries and from one another in several aspects. However, despite the differences, none of the jurisdictions that uses juries seems to have found the ‘perfect recipe’ for a well-functioning jury system. The occurrence of miscarriages of justice involving incorrect jury verdicts demonstrates that the jury trial as a whole may be failing to respond to those democratic needs that constituted the foundations of its introduction. Nevertheless, the jury system appears to be ineradicably rooted in those jurisdictions that chose to introduce it. Clearly, the current situation calls for reform. This chapter, looking at juries from an international standpoint, proposes a critical comparative analysis of some of the most worrying issues occurring in jury decision-making contexts. As the chapter will show, in the search for solutions, comparisons at the international level can offer fruitful insights on how to promote improvement and reform of the jury trial worldwide.
