On September 9, at its Graduate Law Centre in Central, the Chinese University's Faculty of Law – in conjunction with the Hong Kong Bar Association – put the jury, as the title had it, "on trial." The faculty was marking its 20th year, and the Bar was glad to be a partner in discussing a topic of general public importance. Professor Jeremy Dein KC, a distinguished English criminal defense barrister and a visiting professor at the faculty, had come from London to take the chair, and was joined by other judges including our own Mr Justice of Appeal Kevin Zervos, who previously was director of public prosecutions.
As I noted in my welcome address, the jury system has long been a stalwart in the Hong Kong legal system and its preservation is expressly mandated by the Basic Law (Article 86). The importance of the institution is self evident – a government that trusts its own people with as momentous a decision to convict or acquit in serious crimes says something loud and clear about itself.
The jury is one of the few places where the relationship between government and governed is not merely regulatory, but reciprocal. The administration asks something onerous of the citizen – time, attention, an oath. In return, it confers something rare: a share in the administration of justice.
People obey the law more readily, and accept outcomes they dislike more readily, when they can see the process that produced those outcomes was theirs – not something done to them by experts. That enhanced trust means that citizens would not merely comply because of predicted punishment, but instead adopt a practical attitude of accepting legal rules as shared standards of conduct and justification – which in turn motivates compliance. This encapsulates the rule of law.
José Antonio Maurellet SC is the Chairman of the Hong Kong Bar Association
