Citizen participation in context: trends and models of jury trials in social and legal situation key

Abstract

The incorporation of lay citizens - that is to say, those without specialized education in law- to the decision of court cases has traditionally been regarded as a foreign element to the legal culture and Latin American justice systems. Over the past few decades, however, the reality of our courts has begun to question that assumption, in particular in the field of criminal justice. A significant portion of the region countries has introduced experiences of lay participation, in the search of more solidly legitimated decisions before the citizenship and more democratic justice systems, such as the comparative research promises and projured activism. This article proposes an introduction to the current panorama of lay participation systems, with an emphasis on the possibilities that new experiences and legal research open. After presenting a typology of lay participation models in justice, there is discussion on the current trend to the simultaneous contraction and expansion of the jury use in various regions of the world, and reviews some of the existing systems in Latin American countries now.