Published online by Cambridge University Press: 20 November 2018
For cases of serious crime a number of European countries employ a variant of the jury called the mixed court, in which laymen and professional judges sit together in a single panel that deliberates and decides on all issues of verdict and sentence. Trials in the mixed court proceed quite rapidly, in large measure because the mixed court dispenses with most of the time-consuming practices of jury control that characterize Anglo-American trial procedure. Consequently, the legal system can process all cases of serious crime to full trial. The present article describes the German mixed-court system and contrasts it with the American jury, asking to what extent the mixed court serves the purposes of the jury. The conclusion is that the mixed court serves the jury policies well, though not fully; and that it is a superior alternative to the indigenous nontrial devices—plea bargaining and bench trial—that have displaced the jury from routine American practice.
1 For a concise English-language account of the history of the invention of the mixed court in Germany, see Gerhard Casper & Hans Zeisel, Lay Judges in the German Criminal Courts, 1 J. Legal Stud. 135, 136–41 (1972) [hereinafter cited as Casper & Zeisel]. Figures on the modern extent of the mixed court in Western European legal systems are tabulated in Gerhard Casper & Hans Zeisel, Der Laienrichter im Strafprozess 9 (Heidelberg: C. F. Müller Juristischer Verlag, 1979 [hereinafter cited as Casper & Zeisel, Laienrichter].CrossRefGoogle Scholar
2 Stanley, Justin A., The Resolution of Minor Disputes and the Seventh Amendment, 60 Marquette L. Rev. 963, 971 (1977). (Stanley's context was the reform of American small claims courts, an exceptionally adventurous borrowing from the criminal procedural context of the mixed court.).Google Scholar
3 In addition to the works by Casper & Zeisel, supra note 1, see Jescheck, Hans-Heinrich, Das Laienrichtertum in der Strafrechtspflege der Bundesrepublik Deutschland und der Schweiz, 94 Schweizerische Zeitschrift für Strafrecht 229 (1977), and modern literature there cited. For older work see the two-volume set of studies, Schwurgerichte and Schöffengerichte (Wolfgang Mittermaier & M. Liepmann, eds.) (Leipzig, 1908). A forthcoming book is John P. Richert, The Role of Lay Judges in the West German Criminal Courts (1981?). I have discussed the work of the mixed courts in John H. Langbein, Comparative Criminal Procedure: Germany (St. Paul, Minn.: West Publishing Co., 1977).Google Scholar
4 The theme of John P. Dawson, A History of Lay Judges (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1960).Google Scholar
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10 For an English-language summary of these developments see Casper & Zeisel, supra note 1, at 136–41.Google Scholar
11 By the Statute on Court Organization (Gerichtsverfassungsgesetz) of 1877, on whose history see Peter Landau, Die Reichsjustizgesetze von 1879 und die deutsche Rechtseinheit, in Vom Reichsjustizamt zum Bundesministerium der Justiz 161 (Cologne: Bundesanzeiger-Verlagsgesellschaft, 1977).Google Scholar
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13 Discussed infra, text at note 69.Google Scholar
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15 The prosecution may insist on jury trial even if the accused wishes to waive it, but this seldom occurs. See Singer v. United States, 380 U.S. 24 (1965). In practice the only important election is the accused's.Google Scholar
16 I have collected some figures in John H. Langbein, Torture and Plea Bargaining, 46 U. Chi. L. Rev. 3, 9 & n.11 (1978).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
17 See generally John H. Langbein, Controlling Prosecutorial Discretion in Germany, 41 U. Chi. L. Rev. 439 (1974).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
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19 Strafprozessordnung (Code of Criminal Procedure) § 267(1).Google Scholar
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22 Gerichtsverfassungsgesetz § 194(1).Google Scholar
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24 Id. at 149–51. American trial duration data is collected in Langbein, supra note 16, at 10 & n.18.Google Scholar
25 This and the previous paragraph are derived from Langbein, supra note 18, at 207–8.Google Scholar
26 “Juries have the disadvantage … of being treated like children while the testimony is going on, but then being doused with a kettleful of law during the charge that would make a third-year law student blanch.” Curtis Bok, I Too, Nicodemus 261–62 (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1946).Google Scholar
27 See McGautha v. California, 402 U.S. 183 (1971), where the bifurcated California procedure and the unitary Ohio procedure for jury determination of death sentences were upheld. The National Advisory Commission on Criminal Justice Standards and Goals said in its Report on Courts, Standard 5.1, at 110 (Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1973), “Jury sentencing should be abolished in all situations.” It explained:. Although 13 States still allow jury sentencing in noncapital cases, the practice has been condemned by every serious study and analysis in the last half-century. Jury sentencing is nonprofessional and is more likely than judge sentencing to be arbitrary and based on emotions rather than the needs of the offender or society. Sentencing by juries leads to disparate sentences and leaves little opportunity for development of sentencing policies. Id., Commentary. This hostility to jury participation in sentencing is widespread; it is quite difficult to reconcile with the supposed virtues of the jury in matters of verdict, discussed below in part II of this article.Google Scholar
28 For detail on the study design, including the weighting of certain data, see Casper & Zeisel, supra note 1, at 143–46.Google Scholar
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30 Casper & Zeisel, supra note 1, at 185–91.Google Scholar
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32 This and the next paragraph are derived from Langbein, supra note 3, at 137–38.Google Scholar
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34 Quoted in McCauliff, C. M. A., The Reach of the Constitution: American Peace-time Court in West Berlin, 55 Notre Dame Law. 682, 696 (1980).Google Scholar
35 Gerichtsverfassungsgesetz § 43(2). The statute says “twelve regular session days per year,” and the practice is to spread them.Google Scholar
36 Id. §§ 32–36.Google Scholar
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40 Gerichtsverfassungsgesetz §43(1).Google Scholar
41 Id. § 40.Google Scholar
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45 Gerichtsverfassungsgesetz § 45.Google Scholar
46 Strafprozessordnung §§ 22, 24–31.Google Scholar
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55 Id.Google Scholar
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63 Id. at 233–34 (footnotes omitted).Google Scholar
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79 See Langbein, John H., Understanding the Short History of Plea Bargaining, 13 Law & Soc'y Rev. 261, 269–70 (1979).Google Scholar
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81 Unless, of course, the defendant waives all trial by pleading guilty. See R. M. Jackson, The Machinery of Justice in England 183 (7th ed. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1977).Google Scholar
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86 United States, Administrative Office of the United States Courts, 1976 Annual Report of the Director, app. at p. 1–41 table C9 (Washington, D.C.: Administrative Office of the United States Courts, 1976).Google Scholar
87 The figure for Los Angeles appears in San Francisco Committee on Crime, A Report on the Criminal Courts of San Francisco, Part I: The Superior Court Backlog—Consequences and Rem edies 1 (1970). See Langbein, supra note 16, at 10 n.18, for further discussion of this and com parable figures.Google Scholar
88 The following account is based on Langbein, supra note 83.Google Scholar
89 New York Times, March 12, 1971, p. 43, summarized in Yale Kamisar, Wayne R. LaFave, & Jeroid H. Israel, Modern Criminal Procedure 1329 (4th ed. St. Paul, Minn.: West Publishing Co., 1974).Google Scholar
90 The famous term of Sir Thomas Smith, De Republica Anglorum 80 (London 1583).Google Scholar
91 This paragraph is derived from John H. Langbein, Torture and Plea Bargaining, The Public Interest, Winter 1980, at 49–50.Google Scholar