TRIAL BY JURY SYSTEM.

New Zealand Herald, Volume L, Issue 15482, 13 December 1913, Page 5 (Supplement)

TRIAL BY JURY SYSTEM.

CONTROVERSY ;IN FRANCE. The legal question of the moment in France, which also is attracting a vast amount. of public interest, is that of whether the jury as at present constituted provides the best means of getting justice done, and, if not, what measures should be taken to improve matters. Hardly any person of eminence is for , absolute suppression of the jury; a few. are for restricting its powers; most are for modifying and reorganising it. The reason why the question has become acute' at the moment is that the decision in the.' recent Debar case caused a sen- . sation. Debar was alleged to . have shot and killed : his brother-in-law on the Avenue de I'Opera because he suspected him of being the cause of the flight of his wife and children. . The evidenco seemed all against the man, but tho jury acquitted him. The.famous philosphor Bergson was invited to give his opinion, and ho is for reorganisation. His most ' grave charge against the jury. - is that it so often gives its decision from sentiment and not from reason. He would have each juryman compelled to give the reasons which actuated his decision,-and he thinks that this would force him to formulate reasons to himself, and make him less liable to give a vote 1 based on caprice or sentiment. He also suggests that the jury should, be more carefully chosen, and that only, those capable of giving a reasonable judgment should be given a place. The general opinion seems to 'bo " that the. jury is a reflection of tho democratic attitude of modern society, and that the system carries with it public approval. "A people gets the jury it deserves," says one critic. "If it be strict in the matter of morals the jury will be strict; if it be slack tho jury will be indulgent."