Civil Justice: Lay Judges in the EU Countries

<p>Lay judges fulfill important functions for the justice system of a country. In the European Union member states, scholars have analysed the use of lay judges in criminal cases. However, little is known about lay participation in civil justice. The paper introduces commonly cited reasons to...

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Main Author: Stefan Machura
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Oñati International Institute for the Sociology of Law 2016-06-01
Series:Oñati Socio-Legal Series
Subjects:
Online Access:http://opo.iisj.net/index.php/osls/article/view/548
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spelling doaj-0e31356c7f1245ba86221ac922d4973c2020-11-25T00:02:03ZengOñati International Institute for the Sociology of LawOñati Socio-Legal Series2079-59712016-06-0162235254470Civil Justice: Lay Judges in the EU CountriesStefan Machura0Bangor University<p>Lay judges fulfill important functions for the justice system of a country. In the European Union member states, scholars have analysed the use of lay judges in criminal cases. However, little is known about lay participation in civil justice. The paper introduces commonly cited reasons to have lay judges as well as the principal forms of lay participation and then surveys the EU countries for its implementation in civil cases. Mixed tribunals, involving lay judges under the leadership of a professional judge, are relatively frequent. Several countries have special labour courts or commercial courts with lay members and others have single lay judges, or all-lay judge panels. Roughly a third of the 28 EU member states have no lay participation in civil justice but only three of those have no lay judges in any branch of the courts. Almost all the reasons for including lay decision makers are served somehow by the existing forms, including providing different experiences and perhaps expert knowledge. The article concludes, citing non-EU states and lay participation in criminal and administrative courts as further evidence, that lay judges in one form or another are an element of European legal systems.</p> <hr /><p>Los jueces legos cumplen funciones importantes para el sistema de justicia de un pa&iacute;s. En los Estados miembro de la Uni&oacute;n Europea, acad&eacute;micos han analizado el uso de jueces legos en casos criminales. Sin embargo, se sabe poco acerca de la participaci&oacute;n de los legos en la justicia civil. El art&iacute;culo presenta las razones que habitualmente se citan para tener jueces legos, as&iacute; como las formas principales de la participaci&oacute;n de legos, para a continuaci&oacute;n medir su implementaci&oacute;n en casos civiles en los pa&iacute;ses de la Uni&oacute;n Europea. Son relativamente frecuentes los tribunales mixtos, en los que participan jueces legos, bajo la direcci&oacute;n de un juez profesional. Varios pa&iacute;ses tienen tribunales laborales especiales o tribunales comerciales con miembros legos y otros cuentan con jueces legos individuales, o jurados de jueces legos. Aproximadamente un tercio de los 28 Estados miembros de la UE no tienen participaci&oacute;n de legos en la justicia civil, pero s&oacute;lo tres de ellos no tienen jueces legos en ninguna secci&oacute;n de los tribunales. Casi todas las razones para incluir responsables legos se basan de alguna manera en las formas existentes, incluyendo ofrecer diferentes experiencias y, tal vez, el conocimiento de expertos. Citando Estados de fuera de la UE y la participaci&oacute;n de legos en tribunales penales y administrativos como evidencia, el art&iacute;culo llega a la conclusi&oacute;n de que los jueces legos, en una u otra forma, son un elemento de los sistemas legales jur&iacute;dicos europeos.</p> <p><strong>DOWNLOAD THIS PAPER FROM SSRN</strong>: <a href="http://ssrn.com/abstract=2665612" target="_blank">http://ssrn.com/abstract=2665612</a></p>http://opo.iisj.net/index.php/osls/article/view/548Lay judgescivil justicecommercial courtslabour courtsmixed tribunalscivil juryJueces legosjusticia civiltribunales de comerciotribunales de trabajotribunales mixtosjurado civil
collection DOAJ
language English
format Article
sources DOAJ
author Stefan Machura
spellingShingle Stefan Machura
Civil Justice: Lay Judges in the EU Countries
Oñati Socio-Legal Series
Lay judges
civil justice
commercial courts
labour courts
mixed tribunals
civil jury
Jueces legos
justicia civil
tribunales de comercio
tribunales de trabajo
tribunales mixtos
jurado civil
author_facet Stefan Machura
author_sort Stefan Machura
title Civil Justice: Lay Judges in the EU Countries
title_short Civil Justice: Lay Judges in the EU Countries
title_full Civil Justice: Lay Judges in the EU Countries
title_fullStr Civil Justice: Lay Judges in the EU Countries
title_full_unstemmed Civil Justice: Lay Judges in the EU Countries
title_sort civil justice: lay judges in the eu countries
publisher Oñati International Institute for the Sociology of Law
series Oñati Socio-Legal Series
issn 2079-5971
publishDate 2016-06-01
description <p>Lay judges fulfill important functions for the justice system of a country. In the European Union member states, scholars have analysed the use of lay judges in criminal cases. However, little is known about lay participation in civil justice. The paper introduces commonly cited reasons to have lay judges as well as the principal forms of lay participation and then surveys the EU countries for its implementation in civil cases. Mixed tribunals, involving lay judges under the leadership of a professional judge, are relatively frequent. Several countries have special labour courts or commercial courts with lay members and others have single lay judges, or all-lay judge panels. Roughly a third of the 28 EU member states have no lay participation in civil justice but only three of those have no lay judges in any branch of the courts. Almost all the reasons for including lay decision makers are served somehow by the existing forms, including providing different experiences and perhaps expert knowledge. The article concludes, citing non-EU states and lay participation in criminal and administrative courts as further evidence, that lay judges in one form or another are an element of European legal systems.</p> <hr /><p>Los jueces legos cumplen funciones importantes para el sistema de justicia de un pa&iacute;s. En los Estados miembro de la Uni&oacute;n Europea, acad&eacute;micos han analizado el uso de jueces legos en casos criminales. Sin embargo, se sabe poco acerca de la participaci&oacute;n de los legos en la justicia civil. El art&iacute;culo presenta las razones que habitualmente se citan para tener jueces legos, as&iacute; como las formas principales de la participaci&oacute;n de legos, para a continuaci&oacute;n medir su implementaci&oacute;n en casos civiles en los pa&iacute;ses de la Uni&oacute;n Europea. Son relativamente frecuentes los tribunales mixtos, en los que participan jueces legos, bajo la direcci&oacute;n de un juez profesional. Varios pa&iacute;ses tienen tribunales laborales especiales o tribunales comerciales con miembros legos y otros cuentan con jueces legos individuales, o jurados de jueces legos. Aproximadamente un tercio de los 28 Estados miembros de la UE no tienen participaci&oacute;n de legos en la justicia civil, pero s&oacute;lo tres de ellos no tienen jueces legos en ninguna secci&oacute;n de los tribunales. Casi todas las razones para incluir responsables legos se basan de alguna manera en las formas existentes, incluyendo ofrecer diferentes experiencias y, tal vez, el conocimiento de expertos. Citando Estados de fuera de la UE y la participaci&oacute;n de legos en tribunales penales y administrativos como evidencia, el art&iacute;culo llega a la conclusi&oacute;n de que los jueces legos, en una u otra forma, son un elemento de los sistemas legales jur&iacute;dicos europeos.</p> <p><strong>DOWNLOAD THIS PAPER FROM SSRN</strong>: <a href="http://ssrn.com/abstract=2665612" target="_blank">http://ssrn.com/abstract=2665612</a></p>
topic Lay judges
civil justice
commercial courts
labour courts
mixed tribunals
civil jury
Jueces legos
justicia civil
tribunales de comercio
tribunales de trabajo
tribunales mixtos
jurado civil
url http://opo.iisj.net/index.php/osls/article/view/548
work_keys_str_mv AT stefanmachura civiljusticelayjudgesintheeucountries
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