Legal Services

October 2003

Government panel proposes four citizen judges at trials on a judicial reform plan to involve the public court trials, suggesting four private citizen judges work with three professional judges at trials. The number of private citizen judges to be included in trials has been a focus of debate. Under the reform plan, members of the public would be chosen at random from voters to work along with judges in criminal trials. The planned system is similar to the lay judges systems in Germany and France. The panel's plan is unique in that a citizen would be given the same authority as a professional judge to determine a verdict and sentence those found guilty. The proposal would prohibit reporters from contacting citizen judges. As for a controversial proposal to restrict reporting on a trial so to prevent citizen judges from being unduly influenced, the proposal avoided a conclusion and says only that the issue should be discussed after the media sets its own rules. The panel belongs to a government task force chaired by Prime Minister Koizumi to promote judicial reform. The task force will debate the issue based on the proposal, come up with a tentative framework and submit related bills to the Diet next year. On balancing the mix of professional and citizen judges, the proposal adopted a majority opinion at the panel of having three professional judges. The proposal suggests having four citizen judges, but remained open on the possibility of having five or six upon further discussion. (October 29, Kyodo News, Daily Yomiuri, the Nihon Keizai Shimbun)