The Jury between the Civil and the Criminal Law

Abstract

This article comprises two case studies of a ``problem'' within the Anglo-Welsh legal process of jury trial. In that tradition, the judge not only instructs on the law to be applied by the jury, s/he also ``summarises'' the evidence after counsel have already done so. This summarising is largely unconstrained by appellate control. The ``problem'' that the two cases present is that they were trials of ``civil'' issues in which the subject matter is also categorised as ``criminal''. Where such overlaps occur the relevant law is not easy nor clear. This can present difficulties for the judge, which may and in these cases were transmitted and amplified to the jury. In the first case study, the rhetorical direction of the judge's language are analysed. In the second, the language is analysed as a generator of confusion rather than direction. In both cases the outcome in the jury's verdict reflect the judicial language. Under current British law, investigation of the conversion process from judicial ``Summing-up'' through collective jury deliberation to verdict is illegal.