USING A JURY SIMULATION AS A CLASSROOM EXERCISE

The authors' empirical research project considers the effects of differences in actual legal rules on jury decisions and, concurrently, gives business students the opportunity to participate in a realistic jury experience. The project uses actual trial evidence to produce a videotaped simulated trial presentation thereby insuring that the testimony, legal arguments, jury instructions and facts are realistic. To date, approximately 2,000 business students have participated in the simulation, under the supervision of 13 different Academy members at 11 different universities. This article describes the project and its curricular benefits within the context of an introductory course in law.     

A JURY OF PEERS

The frequent inquiries received at our Chicago offices about juvenile juries prompted us to allot some space to it here. To date the National Council has taken no position on their use. A study done in 1965 by the National Council on Crime and Delinquency of eighteen teen-age juries showed many of the claims made on behalf of the teen-age jury—for example, that it gives a teen-ager “a fair trial by a jury of his peers”—are dubious. “The juvenile jury lacks legal foundation and signifies a de facto surrender of judicial authority and responsibility. No substantial evidence was found to support the assertion that the teen-age jury reduces juvenile delinquency and youth crime. The procedure perpetuates the archaic and unsound practice of jury sentencing long abandoned, even for criminal cases, in all but a few states.”     

THE EFFECTS OF SELECTION SYSTEM ON JURY COMPOSITION

The Supreme Court and judicial scholars have argued that the demographic composition of grand and petit juries is important. To the extent that composition is a function of the selection system used, this suggests that the method of selecting grand and petit jurors is important. This article tests the link between selection system and composition by comparing the representation of blacks, Mexican-Americans, and women on grand juries selected by commissioners with the same three classes' representation on grand juries selected at random from the voter registration lists. For these jurisdictions, only female representation is consistently higher under random selection procedures.     

IMPROVEMENT OF THE ADMINISTRATIVE LITIGATION SYSTEM FROM A MACROSCOPIC PERSPECTIVE

Formulated in the time of a planned economy, the Administrative Litigation Law is confronted with such challenges as inadequacy in providing remedy for rights, high litigation costs, and malfunction of courts. The situation calls for reform and development of the Law. An overall improvement shall be done on the Law from such aspects as providing more effective remedies for rights, reducing administrative litigation costs, strengthening the function of administrative litigation in dispute resolution, optimizing the administrative litigation effect, preventing the dereliction or abuse of administrative adjudicative power and upgrading the scientific level of the Law.     

THE EXERCISE OF POWER IN COERCIVE ORGANIZATIONS: A STUDY OF PRISON GUARDS*

If the power of prison guards has been altered and reduced by recent social, legal, and bureaucratic instructions in American prisons, as has been reported by many observers, then what is the base of power by which guards currently exert control over prisoners? Following a discussion of the bases of power in prison, data from a survey of guards in five prisons are examined to determine the extent to which each power base is viewed as a resource to gain prisoner compliance. The results are discussed in terms of the guards’exercise of control within the increasingly bureaucratic structure of coercive organizations.