Juries in Japan
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The jury law was first introduced to Japan in 1923 by the leadership of the Prime Minister Kato Tomosaburo. The jury system was not used very often at that time. The jury law has been suspended since 1943.
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[edit] New law
On May 28, 2004, Diet of Japan enacted the law which requires selected citizens to take part in criminal court trials of certain severe crimes and make decisions together with professional judges both on guilt and on the sentence. These citizens are called “Saiban-in” (裁判員;lay judge). Saiban-in are randomly selected out of the electoral register. In most of the cases the judicial panel is composed of six Saiban-in and three professional judges. In cases where there is no substantial dispute over guilt, the panel will be composed of four Saiban-in and one professional judge. Unlike previous law, the defendants are not allowed to waive trial by Saiban-in. Saiban-in system is going to come into practice by May 2009.
[edit] Controversy of the new law
As with any new system, there is an apprehension by some about the new law. Adversaries of the law assert that Japan has some tradition of submissiveness to authority that will lead to the juries always following the judges' opinion[citation needed]. Just as is the case in most countries, there is a reluctance to be selected for jury duty. Japanese polls are consistent with other developed jury systems where 70 percent of the population has a reluctance to serving as a juror.[1]
[edit] References
- ^ Onishi, Norimitsu (2007-07-16). Japan Learns Dreaded Task of Jury Duty. New York Times. Retrieved on 2007-07-16.
Anderson & Ambler, http://law.anu.edu.au/anjel/documents/ZJapanR/ZJapanR21_HP07_Anderson%20Ambler.pdf
[edit] External links
For an English translation of the law see Anderson & Dear, http://www.hawaii.edu/aplpj/pdfs/v6.01_Anderson.pdf#search=%22saiban-in%20translation%22
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