Metropolitan and Town Juries: The Influence of Social Context on Lay Participation

Abstract

Lay participation in criminal trials, even if prescribed by the 1853 Argentine Constitution, was not established in the country until 2004, when the province of Cordoba created a mixed court to deal with cases of aberrant crimes and corruption.

The article describes the initial experience with mixed courts in the metropolitan area of Great Cordoba, and in small cities of the province, in order to depict the impact of different social contexts on lay participation. The support for citizen participation in legal decision making, the responses to the introduction of the new mixed courts, and jury-judge agreement rates are some of the issues compared.

The analysis uses data obtained in the sentences pronounced in the period 2005-2008, and interviews to lawyers, magistrates and common citizens who served as jurors, conducted both in metropolitan and town areas. Qualitative material gathered in the interviews is used also to explore the effect of lay participation in legal decision making in the construction of an identity as citizens.

Keywords: Jury, Influence of Social Context in Lay Participation