With a refreshing and international approach, this conference will explore the historical, social, and legal forces that have shaped and are shaping juries and jury systems in the Americas.
Until recently, North America was the primary home for jury trials in the Americas, with jury systems being utilized more in the United States and Canada than in South America. This dynamic is now changing. New jury systems have emerged or are under consideration in South America; meanwhile, the well-established jury systems of North America have been undergoing significant changes, and efforts are being made to bolster jury performance and representativeness as juries face increasing public skepticism. As juries change in the Americas, the participation of ordinary people in justice and the outcomes of that participation are also changing.
This project, led by Shari Seidman Diamond (American Bar Foundation and Northwestern Pritzker School of Law) and Valerie Hans (Cornell Law School), will convene a conference designed to gather experts from Argentina, Brazil, Canada, Chile, the United States, and Uruguay, to examine historical roots, cultural influences, and legal reforms that have shaped the jury systems of countries in the Americas throughout history and during this current dynamic period for juries in the Americas.
In gathering this international group of scholars, the conference also aims to identify gaps in existing scholarship on how variations in jury systems and juries themselves produce different outcomes and effects. Conference participants will set a research agenda to address these knowledge gaps; additionally, there are plans to produce a book or series of articles which will build on the work of the conference. A Spanish-language publication of the proceedings of the conference is also planned to expand the global impact of this work.
This conference will provide a unique opportunity to revisit traditional jury procedures with new eyes while also enlarging a global understanding of jury systems. The comparative thinking at the heart of this project offers a productive correction to the often-held assumption that juries are globally monolithic and do not change over time. The research agenda emerging from the conference should generate new ways of understanding the institution of the jury trial.