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1、Lay Adjudication in European Countries Most European countries have some form of lay participation in the trial of cases This chapter examines the ways citizens take part in the adjudication of criminal cases in the following countries Denmark Germany England and Wales Belgium and the Netherlands It
2、 explains how the selection of the lay participants is conducted what their tasks are and what their involvement encompasses in practice during the process Only criminal law is considered in this chapter with the exception of the Netherlands where other legal procedures allowing for direct input by
3、citizens are discussed as well Further sections of this chapter present a brief sketch of lay involvement in a number of other European countries including some from the former Communist bloc Belgium Belgium introduced its jury system under French influence and the ideas of the Enlightenment Article
4、 150 of the Belgian Constitution states that criminal cases among others must be decided by juries It is the Belgian Hof van Assisen that tries cases with the help of a jury This court does not sit permanently but is called together each time a court is needed to try a case that must be dealt with b
5、y a jury Each of the 10 Belgian provinces has a Hof van Assisen and Brussels has two one in Dutch one in French This court is composed of three professional judges and 12 jurors The cases that are tried by the Hof van Assisen are crimes for which the maximum penalty is at least five years imprisonme
6、nt In principle most crimes covered by this criterion can be correctionalized which means that they can be tried by a court without a jury In practice nowadays only the most serious crimes such as murder are tried by a jury court de Roos 2006 Tasks The task of the jury is to decide on the defendant
7、s guilt The basis for this decision is a questionnaire The jury is only allowed to answer yes or no to the questions There are two types of question first those about the crimes with which the defendant is charged such as whether the defendant is guilty of the alleged crime and what legal qualificat
8、ion would apply The second type of question covers those that arise during the trial of the case for example relating to mitigating or aggravating circumstances or the presence of certain mental 34 disorders Jury members are allowed to ask questions during the court session but not many of them make
9、 use of this power As is the case for all juries it is forbidden to give any sign of one s conclusions regarding the defendant s guilt or innocence during the court session If a member of a jury does so in spite of this prohibition he or she can be challenged and may have to be replaced Voting on th
10、e defendant s guilt takes place in secret without the professional judges attending When the votes are equally divided between guilty and not guilty the defendant is acquitted In case only a small majority seven jurors finds the defendant guilty the three professional judges have to give their opini
11、on as well When two of them do not agree with those seven jurors the defendant is acquitted In Belgium as in France conviction intime is the basis for the jury s judgement about the defendant s guilt Each individual member of the jury has to be personally convinced as to the defendant s guilt or inn
12、ocence The Belgian Code of Criminal Procedure states that jurors are not allowed to give reasons for their judgement about whether the evidence is sufficient They should consider the questions that have to be answered and consult their conscience in silence There are no specific rules of evidence th
13、at should be followed for reaching a decision as to the defendant s guilt Jury verdicts thus do not contain the reasons on which they are based In contrast decisions about the sentence include a rationale The jury and the professional judges cooperate in deciding about the sentence This decision is
14、made by majority vote The youngest member of the jury gives his or her opinion first and the president is the last one to do so A jury decision is not subject to appeal In case of a factually incorrect decision however the case can be brought before a new jury That is only possible in the event that
15、 the defendant is found guilty of the alleged crime The highly unusual decision to do this is up to the professional judges Furthermore the case can be sent to a new Hof van Assisen if an appeal to the Court of Cassation has been granted The Court of Cassation however can only deal with legal and pr
16、ocedural matters and does not reinvestigate the factual merits of the case Selection Every four years candidates for jury duty are selected randomly by the provinces in Belgium The list thus composed is sent to the president of the District Court in the capital of each province The president is responsible for the definitive list that is drawn up Special attention is paid to ensuring an equal representation of people with a certain level of education and those without Jury members must meet cert
