PPLE jury finds jury system fair
On Friday 13 May, PPLE's Talent Development Programme organized a mock trial within the Decision Making course. A jury of students was asked to decide on the issue: Is the jury system unfair?
The jury was selected from the audience in accordance with standard jury selection processes. PPLE experts then presented evidence regarding the merits of the jury system, related to cases highlighted in documentaries such as ‘Making a murderer’, by providing insights into the psychology of decision making (social perception, group deliberation etc.), and from political science (fairness, democracy etc.) and law (do these psychological processes play a different role in European Law). The prosecution and defence had the opportunity to question the experts.
While in the end it was a hung jury with 11-1 in favor of 'the jury system is fair', the audience vote was almost exactly 50-50. The jury seemed focused on weighing the fairness of the jury system versus a system with just judicial decisions, whereas most of the audience based their vote on a more abstract description of fair or unfair.