Who Judges? Designing Jury Systems in Japan, East Asia, and Europe by Rieko Kage

Abstract

Reviewed by: Who Judges? Designing Jury Systems in Japan, East Asia, and Europe by Rieko Kage Hiroshi Fukurai (bio) Who Judges? Designing Jury Systems in Japan, East Asia, and Europe. By Rieko Kage. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 2017. xiv, 264 pages. $99.99, cloth; $29.99, paper; $24.00, E-book. This book is an extremely valuable addition to global jury studies and makes a significant contribution to the sociopolitical analysis of varied democratic systems of citizen participation in criminal justice proceedings. The author focuses on the lay participation systems that have been adopted, or are in the process of being introduced, in four countries: Japan, Korea, and Taiwan in Asia, and Spain in Europe. The main analysis concerns the adoption of Japan's saiban-in seido (a quasi-jury trial or mixed tribunal). The author considers an array of political science theories and derives theoretically informed hypotheses, carefully testing them through a masterful use of mixed-method analysis. The testable propositions are drawn from, and guided by, political theories of democratization, conscription, taxation, and delegation. Other political science theories and perspectives are introduced to explain the significance of adopting varied forms of popular participation in criminal trials, such as the path-dependent theory devised by Paul Pierson and the principal-agent literature on delegation, as well as political insurance theory. Also included are excellent comparative case studies related to the theoretical propositions of "new left" politics and partisan dynamics and their influence on the introduction of the jury and lay judge systems in these four countries. There are ten independent chapters, each one carefully researched and containing thoughtful analysis. Chapter 1 offers an overview of the comparative theoretical framework of the studies undertaken by the author, arguing that the relative strength of "new left" political factors has shaped not only the character of debates on the possibility of popular participation in justice systems but also the design and structural matrix of the lay participation program in criminal trials. Chapter 2 sketches out the novel theoretical framework of "new left" partisan politics in relation to efforts to impose [End Page 448] stronger constraints upon bureaucratic professional judges in advanced democracies such as Japan and "postdevelopmental" states such as Spain, Korea, and Taiwan. Chapter 3 turns to an empirical analysis of the influence of "new left" partisan politics on efforts to introduce popular participation in criminal trials. Drawing on the multitudinous data from the Comparative Manifesto Project and other available sources, the author convincingly demonstrates that "new left" oriented parties are more likely to take up leftist concerns and policy issues, including the adoption of popular participation in criminal adjudication. Chapters 4 and 5 examine the history of lay participation debates in Japan, with chapter 4 providing a content analysis of the partisan debates between 1947 and 1996, noting that unique events such as four wrongful conviction cases scrutinized by the Japanese Supreme Court led to sudden spikes in media and public concern about the legitimacy of Japan's traditional bench trial system and of the decisions reached under that system. This public scrutiny also led to greater partisan debates on significant judicial reforms in the late 1980s and early 1990s. Chapter 5 specifically examines partisan dynamics around the millennial period from 1997 to 2004, when a governmental consensus emerged from the Justice System Reform Council (JSRC, Shihō Seido Kaikaku Shingikai), whose final recommendation included the establishment of the mixed, professional, and lay judge panel to adjudicate serious criminal cases. More than 60 JSRC public panel discussions were held in many parts of Japan; these allowed maximum input from public interest groups to influence the content and spectrum of lay participation debates and discussions. Chapter 6 moves on to test the theoretically driven hypotheses based on records of debates in both houses of the Japanese Diet, demonstrating that "new left" partisan agendas influenced the deliberation in the Japanese Diet over the establishment of the JSRC in 1999. Chapter 7 focuses on Taiwan's proposal for lay participation, followed by chapter 8's coverage of studies of party politics in relation to the introduction of the jury system in Spain and South Korea. The empirical analysis of the varied impact of popular...