Law and Social Justice Assesment Report

Law and Social Justice
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Table of Contents
Introduction 3
Discussion 3
Jury Impropriety 3
R v. Smith 2005 4
Article 6 of the ECHR 5
Conclusion 6
Bibliography 7
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Introduction
In recent years, there have been reports about the fairness of jury towards Black and Minority
Ethnic (BME). After the formation of Jury impropriety, the discussion and decision became
inviolable. It has been observed from this jury judgment few of the laws are challenged by
the European convention under the Article 6 i.e. “Right to a Fair Trial”. The European Court
of Justices (ECJ) has enforced a rule, which explains the existence of sufficient guarantees
for excluding any objectively justified doubts for impartiality of the jury. It has also stressed
that a jury should be impartial from the subjective and objectives point of view1.
Contextually, this research paper focuses on the issue of impropriety of jury and maintaining
balance between competing demand of Secrecy and reviewability. This paper also explains
the Article 6 of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR)2. Thus, the objective of
this study is to understand the impartiality formation of jury along with secrecy and
reviewability with the help of Article 6.
Discussion
Jury Impropriety
In the year 2004, the House of Lords identified the extent under section 8 of the enforcement
of Court Act 1981. Contextually, the section of the 8 Court Act prohibits the judges to ask
jurors questions relating to discussions at the time of making impropriety accusations. The
court has repeated the established principle that the trial judge is solely allowed to investigate
the issues impacting jury considerations. The effects of this law have significantly affected
jury. This is due to the fact that unless the jury members bring concern regarding improper
jury to the judge of the trial prior to the judgment is returned, it is the hard to investigate such
1 Cheryl Thomas, ‘Are Juries Fair’ (2010) 1-65.
2 Justice, ‘Article 6: Right to a Fair Trial’ (News, 2019) <https://justice.org.uk/article-6-right-fair-trial/>
accessed 21 December 2019
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