New policy report on juryless trials pilot
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Credit: Edinburgh Law School
The Edinburgh Foundation for Women in Law at Edinburgh Law School has published a briefing note from a roundtable it held last year on the Victims, Witnesses and Justice Reform (Scotland) Bill.
The discussion found that while the pilot of juryless trials has the potential to improve the experiences of victims and conviction rates in Scotland, it remains a contentious issue and there are some significant considerations including:
- It remains important to improve training on issues related to the justice process, rape myths and consent, as well as trauma-informed training.
- While this scheme is likely to improve the experiences of survivors during the trial, it is important not to overlook the experiences of survivors before and after the trial process.
- It is vital to ensure fairness for all parties involved, and therefore other models could also be considered in the future (for example, the appointment of more than one judge, or one judge accompanied by two specialist assessors).
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