
News & Announcements
Hello CRN4 Members and IRC Lay Participation in Law around the Globe participants!
Berger International Speaker Series: Andrés Harfuch will discuss “Using the Jury to Spread Democratic Reform in Argentina and Beyond”
Wednesday, March 3, 2021 at 12:15pm to 1:15pm
Please register at the Zoom link below:
https://cornell.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_GYmyNvbITxSMIPOacOUerg
Andrés Harfuch is a public defender and Associate Professor of Law at the University of Buenos Aires, where he regularly teaches the next generation of Argentine lawyers about trial litigation. He is also a Member of the Board of Directors of INECIP, the Institute for Comparative Studies in Political and Social Sciences, in Buenos Aires, and Vice-president of the Argentine Association for Trial by Jury (AAJJ). Andrés leads a group of remarkably successful activists in Argentina dedicated to the improvement of the justice system. One impressive success has the promulgation of trial by jury in criminal cases in six provinces in Argentina, and most recently trial by jury in civil cases in Chaco. He has written many books and articles about criminal procedure and jury trial procedure that are widely consulted by judges and lawyers in Argentina. He was a Visiting Scholar at Cornell Law School in 2014.
Previous News/Announcements
Dear colleagues:
I'm happy to pass along two stories from Argentina, where several provinces have introduced trial by jury. The first is from a judge who describes the experience of presiding over her first jury trial. I think you will find it fascinating. http://www.juicioporjurados.org/2019/03/my-first-experience-as-judge-in-jury.html
The second describes a report written by our CRN/IRC colleagues Sidonie Porterie and Aldana Romano on their new research on the jury system in Buenos Aires province. Congratulations to Sidonie and Aldana on their fine work! http://www.juicioporjurados.org/2019/03/first-empirical-research-about-latin.html
Valerie P. Hans
Charles F. Rechlin Professor of Law
Cornell Law School
6/7/18-6/10/18: Law and Society Association/Canadian Law and Society Association meeting in Toronto, Ontario
Here is a link to CRN sessions at the upcoming meeting of the Law and Society Association/Canadian Law and Society Association, which will be held in Toronto on June 7-10, 2018. We have organized 5 paper sessions and a roundtable discussion on a variety of issues including comparative lay participation research, inequality and the jury, and the role of criminal justice actors in shaping who sits on juries and in determining what they hear. Speakers will be talking about lay participation developments in such countries as Argentina, Australia, Belgium, Canada, England and Wales, France, Georgia, Japan, Norway, Russia, Spain, and the USA, offering us a range of perspectives. And for those of you attending, please come to our business meeting (Friday 6/8, 11:45 am-12:45 pm) and plan to join us for a CRN group dinner following the conference’s opening reception on Thursday (details to follow).
June 20-23, 2017
International Law and Society Conference, Mexico City, Mexico
Greetings! The International Law and Society Conference in Mexico City was a huge success, with a record number of participants in a world-class location. Our IRC organized a number of sessions showcasing the latest research from around the globe on lay participation in law. The first link below lists the IRC sessions. We have also posted links to materials from the individual presentations during the conference. See you in Toronto!
- Sessions on Lay Participation
- Is unanimity a nightmare? Research about decision rules and verdicts from the jury in Argentina - Mariana Bilinski and Natali Chizik (Paper:PDF)
- Is unanimity a nightmare? Research about decision rules and verdicts from the jury in Argentina - Mariana Bilinski and Natali Chizik (PowerPoint:PDF)
- Beyond a broad appeal - Vanina Almeida and Denise Bakrokar (Paper:PDF)
- Beyond a broad appeal - Vanina Almeida and Denise Bakrokar (PowerPoint:PDF)
- Success or Failure? Japan's Introduction of the Saiban-in Seido and the System of Lay Participation in Criminal Trials - Hiroshi Fukurai and Dimitri Vanoverbeke
Andrés Harfuch from Argentina sends in this comment and link: "We are in the final countdown towards the first trial by jury in Buenos Aires province (next Tuesday). In the meantime, this excellent report [about how 12 Angry Men is being disseminated in Argentina is airing] on Fox News Latino.
5/28/15-5/31/15: Law and Society Association annual meeting in Seattle, WA.
The Law and Society Association's preliminary program for 2015 is now available online. A big "thank you" to Mary Rose who served on the Program Committee for the conference. You can access the preliminary program here.
Our CRN on Lay Participation in Legal Decision Making is sponsoring 4 sessions. They are listed below. We will also hold a short business meeting after the last session on Thursday, 5/28, beginning around 6:45 pm. It conflicts with the start of the opening reception, but we will keep the meeting fairly short, and people who are interested can go to the reception together. Following the reception, those who are interested can go to a group dinner. If you'd like to be included in the CRN dinner, please email Sanja (kutnjak@msu.edu), so she can make the appropriate reservation.
We look forward to seeing you in Seattle! Valerie, Sanja, and Mary
1. CRN 04 Lay Participation Methods Roundtable
Fri, 5/29: 7:30 AM - 9:15 AM
3192
Roundtable Session
Friday Session 1
Westin Seattle
Room: Breakout 21
Jury scholars deploy multiple and multi-disciplinary research methods to examine lay participation in the legal process. As we follow our investigations in and out of courtrooms, judges' chambers, and lawyers' offices, our methodological approaches often require improvisation and combination. This workshop aims to expand discussions of jury research methods beyond the disciplinary boundaries that sometimes constrain them. Because of the dynamic nature of our research sites and diverse constitution of our scholarly audiences, this session offers a context within which to share reflections and ask questions of colleagues in adjacent disciplines. Drawing on illustrative research projects, panelists will offer insight into methods including conversation analysis, post-verdict survey work, quantitative studies of juror demographics, trial simulation research, an interactionist study of jury deliberation, and the ethnographic study of jury selection.
Chair: Anna Offit, Princeton
Discussant: Neil Vidmar, Duke Law School
Participant(s)
Catherine Grosso, Michigan State University College of Law
Paula Hannaford-Agor, National Center for State Courts
Margaret Kovera, John Jay College of Criminal Justice
Barbara O'Brien, Michigan State University College of Law
Anna Offit, PrincetonMeredith Rossner, London School of Economics and Political Science
David Tait, University of Western Sydney
Nicole Waters, National Center for State Courts
2. Global Jury Practices &Innovations: A Cross-Country Exchange
Fri, 5/29: 9:30 AM - 11:15 AM
3252
Paper Session
Friday Session 2
Westin Seattle
Room: Breakout 24
In keeping with this meeting's focus on the Global North and the Global South, this panel will explore "global jury practices and innovations." We will focus on several countries, from as far north as Canada and as far south as Australia, as well as countries in between, and consider their different approaches to the jury and to lay participation. We will draw examples from the Global North and the Global South to examine how a common institution, such as the jury, can develop in different ways in different places and at different times. This cross-country exchange will help the panel members to think critically about their own jury system and which practices from other countries might work well in their own jury system and which practices might be difficult to import and why.
Chair/Discussant: Nancy Marder, IIT Chicago-Kent College of Law
Presentations
Civil Jury Trials in Okinawa, Japan from 1964 to 1972 and Their Resurrection in Seeing Corporate and Governmental Accountabilities in a post-Fukushima Disaster era
Presenter
Hiroshi Fukurai, University of California Santa Cruz
The jury trial in Spain: the relevant role played by the Clerk of the Court
Presenter
Mar Jimeno-Bulnes, Universidad de Burgos
Non-Presenting Co-Author
Valerie Hans, Cornell Law School
The Problems of Lack of Native Representation on Juries in Canada: Exploring Whether A Jury of Peers Is Attainable and Strategies for Change
Presenter
Marie Comiskey, University of Toronto
The Theory and Reality of Lay Judges in Mixed Tribunals
Presenter
Sanja Kutnjak Ivkovich, Michigan State University
3. CRN 04: Challenges facing the American Jury
Fri, 5/29: 1:30 PM - 3:15 PM
4646
Paper Session
Friday Session 4
Westin Seattle
Room: Breakout 21
This session will explore challenges the jury in the United States currently faces. One challenge stems from the move away from resolving disputes by trial. We will hear from a leading legal practitioner who is undertaking a lobbying and publicity campaign (e.g., the "Save Our Juries" website) to reignite use of the jury. Another challenge is the long-standing concern about who serves on juries. Two papers will explore representativeness issues, one which examines how the small samples generated for trial venires creates small disparities that are hard to litigate;the other looks at the issue of attitudinal representation. We will also have discussion of alternatives to the jury trial.
Chair: Mary Rose, University of Texas
Discussant: Paula Hannaford-Agor, National Center for State Courts
PresentationsJuries and Attitudinal Representation
Presenter
Andrew Krebs, University of Texas at Austin
Non-Presenting Co-Author(s)
Shari Diamond, Northwestern U Law School/American Bar Foundation
Mary Rose, University of Texas
Jurors and Social Media: Is a Fair Trial Still Possible?
Presenter
Nancy Marder, IIT Chicago-Kent College of Law
Saving the Civil Jury Trial: A Review of ABOTA's Efforts
Presenter
Stephen Susman, Susman Godfrey
The Effect of Jury Service on Jurors' Trust in Police and Courts
Presenter
Liana Pennington, University of Alabama
The Power of Small Cuts: Small Group Sampling and Jury Representation
Presenter
Mary Rose, University of Texas
4. CRN 4: Listening to Lay Perspectives in Legal Systems
Fri, 5/29: 3:30 PM - 5:15 PM
6446 Paper Session
Friday Session 5
Westin Seattle
Room: Breakout 21
The papers in this session take a critical look at when the voices of lay tribunals (e.g., juries) and its members are listened to and taken seriously within the context of a broader legal system. Voices are obscured by not saying what the state or legal professionals wants to hear, or because the deliberative process is stymied by actual communication challenges.
Chair/Discussant: David Tait, University of Western Sydney
Presentations
Composition of Mixed Courts in Kazakhstan: Issues of Linguistic, Racial and Gender Representativeness
Presenter
Nikolai Kovalev, Wilfrid Laurier University
FROM ALEXANDER II TO PUTIN: THE RISE AND FALL OF RUSSIAN JURIES SINCE THE TIME OF THE CZARS
Presenter
Nazim Ziyadov, Antalya International University
Jury reform in England and Wales - unfinished business
Presenter
Penny Darbyshire, Kingston University London
Learning to judge: How Danish jurors navigate between Law and common sense during deliberation in criminal cases
Presenter
Louise Victoria Johansen, Faculty of Law
Participation in the administration of justice: Deaf citizens as jurors
Presenter
Debra Russell, University of Alberta
Co-Presenter
Jemina Napier, Heriot-Watt University
Non-Presenting Co-Author(s)
Sandra Hale, University of New South Wales
Mehera San Roque, University of New South Wales
David Spencer, Australian Catholic University
"Why States Solicit Citizen Input: The Introduction of Jury Systems in East Asia"
PresenterRieko Kage, University of Tokyo
CRN/IRC member Valerie Hans has been elected president of the Law and Society Association for a two-year term beginning in June 2015. Click here for the story.
5/29/14-6/1/14: Law and Society Association meeting in Minneapolis, MN.
Click here for panels and papers, Minneapolis, MN. on Lay Participation presented at 2014 Law & Society Association meeting
5/30/13-6/2/13: Law and Society Association meeting in Boston, MA.
Click here for panels and papers, Boston,MA. on Lay Participation presented at 2013 Law & Society Association meeting
6/5/12-6/8/12: International Law and Society Conference, Honolulu, Hawaii Click here for a listing of 2012 LSA panels and papers on lay participation in law
3/25/11: Popular Justice: Beyond Judges and Juries
Click here for more info
2/26/09: Takashi Maruta, Professor of Law, Kwansei Gakuin University Law School, Japan, and Visiting Scholar, Center for Japanese Legal Studies, Columbia University, Lay Participation in Legal Decision Making Comes to Japan: http://media.lawschool.cornell.edu/flashcom/misc/2009/hans_movie_feb09.html
Professor Maruta has been a major influence in the development of Japanese legal reforms, including the introduction of Saiban-in Seido, the Japanese reform in which six lay citizens and three professional judges decide serious criminal cases jointly. In his 2009 talk at Cornell, Professor Maruta discussed the law reform process that led to this particular form of citizen participation in legal decision making, and the special challenges that he and others confronted and continue to face in developing a strong and vibrant system of lay participation in Japan.
8/16/09: Foreigners size up lay judge system Citizens' willingness to serve contrasts with other nations that allow public participation:
Click Here to view the 2006 International Research Collaborative Newsletter (pdf format)
Click Here to view the June 24th 2007 International Research Collaborative Newsletter (pdf format)
Click Here to view the October 1st 2007 International Research Collaborative Newsletter (pdf format)
Click Here to view the 2008 Montreal Law & Society Association Meeting (pdf format)
Information on this page is provided for archival purposes. All newly created PDFs on this website are accessible. For an accommodation for PDFs on this page, please contact law-web-ada@cornell.edu.