Unreasoned Verdict

"The jury in its contemporary form begins effectively with its democratising by the Criminal Justice Act 1972. The first section of the book gives an historical analysis of jury trial from its early days of emergence. The historical background merely endorses the English culture in the criminal jurisdiction. There is little doubt that the jury system (English style) has the evident support of public opinion, although decreasing, as to the acceptable solution for the model form of administering criminal justice. However the unknown reception by the jury of the direction in law and the summing-up on the relevant facts for decision-making is often ineffective, if not actually ineffectual. Furthermore, unless and until we are possessed of information about the dialectic effect of the chemistry of judge and jury we are bereft of translating views about the generality of jury trial into the reality of what lies behind the monosyllabic utterance of the unreasoned verdict. The first part of the book explores these issues. In its second section, the book goes on to explain the essential features of the scope and nature of jury trial, which, unlike its counterpart in the United States, deman