GW Law Faculty Publications & Other Works

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

2025

Status

Accepted

Abstract

This Foreword overviews the rich fund of ideas for reform of the jury that were discussed at The George Washington Law Review’s fall 2024 Symposium. The Symposium was inspired by my book The Jury: A Very Short Introduction (Oxford University Press 2023). In many countries, rates of jury trial have been declining. The decline is steepest in the United States, which ironically has one of the most robust formal rights to jury trial in the world. This Symposium brought together distinguished judges, lawyers, and academics and exposed audience members and panelists alike to new ideas and methods of reform concerning a venerable and formative legal institution.

My purpose in this Foreword is to draw out some of the major themes and to emphasize the deep connections between the participants’ ideas. Along the way, I highlight some direct interactions. Several key topics emerge from the presentations and discussions. Most fundamental are the twin questions of the rationale for the jury and when juries should be used; these are not self-evident. Then comes how to make the jury trial workable so that it can be used when desired. Many contributors emphasized the importance of streamlining methods of jury selection, and several recommended abolishing peremptory challenges. The conduct of trials received much attention, including the necessity of simplifying cases for the jury and telling a story together with the desirability of judicial comment on evidence to the jury. Two participants performed important comparative research into foreign legal systems and emerged with critical information about how to increase lay participation by using different forms of the jury and modifying legal culture to reduce plea bargaining. Participants not only generated solutions for the problem of the disappearing jury, but they also mapped out strategies for how to make these solutions a reality.

GW Paper Series

2026-08

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