Fri 21st May - Judges or Juries?

This week, Lucie will introduce a discussion on how economics might help us favour a particular judicial structure. Points of debate include the pros and cons of the jury trial system; the relative merits of judge's rulings vis-à-vis jury decisions; and whether judges should be elected or appointed.

Some background reading:

• The problem with judges : http://personal.lse.ac.uk/levyg1/judgerand.pdf
• Some empirical evidence on the differences between the systems : http://legal1.cit.cornell.edu/articles/h77clr1124_1177.pdf and http://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/pdf/10.1086/380412
• The system of trial by jury in England may be under threat : http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2009/jun/18/criminal-trial-without-jury
• Should judges be elected? http://pubs.aeaweb.org/doi/pdfplus/10.1257/0002828042002606

As usual we meet on Friday 6pm in STICERD common area.