The effectiveness of juries and the use of the civil courts in the control of crime--the emperor's new clothes?

Abstract

A seminar under this title, the sixth in the series organized by the Academy and jointly sponsored by the Criminal Bar Association, the Law Society and, this year, the Administrative Law Bar Association, was held in the Morrison Hall, Gray's Inn, on the evening of 10 December 1997. Chaired by Lord Bingham of Cornhill, the Lord Chief Justice, the seminar attracted an audience of 250. This comprised several members of the higher judiciary, including four Lords Justice of Appeal, six High Court Judges and 20 Circuit Judges, the Director of Public Prosecutions, two Law Commissioners, a number of Chief Constables and other senior police officers, representatives from the Treasury, the Lord Chancellor's Department, the Home Office, the Crown Prosecution Service, the Serious Fraud Office, Customs and Excise and the Criminal Cases Review Authority, academics, forensic scientists, solicitors, barristers and reporters from the legal press. The papers on which the speeches were based follow hereafter. These reflect public concern about the workings and efficiency of juries and focus, first, on the desirability of legitimate research which might lead to improvements in the jury system and, second, on other methods which might be used to control criminal behaviour through the civil courts, as anticipated by the current government's Crime and Disorder Bill.