Letter: No absolute right to jury trial in our law

Discussion of dispensing with juries for trials for charges of rape and attempted rape should not disregard the fact that an absolute right to jury trial has been no part of our law in recent history, if ever.

Rather, the long-standing and time-tested principle is that it is proper where the charge is more serious and guilt should lead to a heavier sentence: Renton & Brown, Criminal Procedure, para. 1-08.

The distinction between more and less serious cases, and those which should be more or less severely punished, must always be open to parliamentary review. If the legislature finds jury trial no longer proper for rape, then we must surely infer that that is simply a re-evaluation of where to draw that line – if perhaps at odds with how in our time the wider community has grown to regard the seriousness of such crimes.

Michael Upton