Editors --- "Legal Studies" [2000] AltLawJl 5; (2000) 25(1) Alternative Law Journal 13

• LEGAL STUDIES
• Further reading

LEGAL STUDIES

The following questions for discussion are based on the preceding article.

1. A jury must consider all the evidence in a case and make decisions about facts.

• What difficulties do you think jurors might face in doing this?

• What suggestions can you make that would help jurors in their task?

• Are your suggestions necessary or merely desirable? Are they fair? Are they affordable?

2. Depending on the type of case, there may be up to 12 jurors who must reach agreement on the facts.

• Is this form of collective thinking common in other spheres of life in Australia? Where else does it occur?

• What difficulties do you think there are with this approach to decision­ making? What advantages are there?

• Can you think of alternative approaches, and what would be the advantages and disadvantages?

Further reading

M. Findlay and P. Duff (eds), The Jury Under Attack, Butterworths, 1988.

B. Cassidy, '12 angry persons still needed', (1998) 23(1) Alt.L/9.

The best way to access the large literature on juries is to use the Australian National Library database APAIS. This database will identify relevant articles in newspapers, news magazines and academic journals.