“It’s in the law”: An ethnographic account of the effects of the introduction of lay participation on judicial bureaucracies in Greater Buenos Aires

Abstract

The province of Buenos Aires (Argentina) introduced its first criminal jury system in 2013. This article discusses the design and initial findings of an ethnographic research project looking at this legal innovation with particular attention to the effects of the introduction of new (lay) actors – and their practices, knowledges, experiences – to the criminal justice system, bringing to the analysis rules, spaces, temporalities and people that are bound by this phenomenon. Focusing on the initial stages of the process – the draw and summoning of prospective jurors and jury selection hearings –, we discuss how material and temporal constraints to fulfill the legal mandate of incorporating lay decision-makers give place to the reshaping and (re)creation of certain roles and positions within the bureaucratic structure. We argue that the jury has become a spectral presence that alters a myriad of existing practices, characters and responsibilities in the criminal justice of Buenos Aires that goes well beyond their verdicts.