Extensive Use Of Lay Magistrates
No legal system makes extensive use of lay magistrates as England and Wales. Lay magistrates become formalised in the Justice of the Peace Act 1361, but the English legal system makes use of lay (non professional) magistrates since 1195. The reason of the use of lay magistrates lies in the notion of participatory democracy , “judgement by one’s peers” . Throughout the years many have encountered in reforms, opinions and discussion regarding the role of judges within the system.
Together with district judges, lay magistrates deal with 95 per cent of criminal cases. In England and Wales lay magistrates usually sit in a bench of three, or sometimes two. The one who sit in the middle and speaks on behalf of them all, is called ‘Chairman’, usually …show more content…
The majority of them stated that the process is slow and consequently is stressful; this could bring people to lose interest to apply for it.
The Morgan and Russel report (2000) shows that the benches are gender balanced, actually statistics from 2013 show that there are slightly more women than men. The same report shows that there is an overwhelming concentration of professionals and manager. It indicates that there is a lack of representation of different ethnicities. This report could not show any opinion about political affiliation because there are not enough data.
How to recruit a more diverse and representative bench of magistrates: firstly nearly 90% of the magistrates are from “higher managerial, administrative and professional occupation” , most of them are retired and most of the defendants are young with a higher proportion of BAME residents. Involving young people in the court as lay magistrates could give the opportunity to reduce the average of old magistrates and widen the diversity of the bench. Secondly according to Penelope Gibbs and Amy Kirby in Judged by peers? The diversity of lay magistrates in England and Wales (Howard League What is Justice? Working Papers 6/2014) the magistrates recruitment is frozen. However, the article shows some possible
Together with district judges, lay magistrates deal with 95 per cent of criminal cases. In England and Wales lay magistrates usually sit in a bench of three, or sometimes two. The one who sit in the middle and speaks on behalf of them all, is called ‘Chairman’, usually …show more content…
The majority of them stated that the process is slow and consequently is stressful; this could bring people to lose interest to apply for it.
The Morgan and Russel report (2000) shows that the benches are gender balanced, actually statistics from 2013 show that there are slightly more women than men. The same report shows that there is an overwhelming concentration of professionals and manager. It indicates that there is a lack of representation of different ethnicities. This report could not show any opinion about political affiliation because there are not enough data.
How to recruit a more diverse and representative bench of magistrates: firstly nearly 90% of the magistrates are from “higher managerial, administrative and professional occupation” , most of them are retired and most of the defendants are young with a higher proportion of BAME residents. Involving young people in the court as lay magistrates could give the opportunity to reduce the average of old magistrates and widen the diversity of the bench. Secondly according to Penelope Gibbs and Amy Kirby in Judged by peers? The diversity of lay magistrates in England and Wales (Howard League What is Justice? Working Papers 6/2014) the magistrates recruitment is frozen. However, the article shows some possible