Eight Centuries of Protection, One Government's Convenience: The Attack on Trial by Jury Must Be Resisted
Ministers are floating proposals to restrict defendants' right to elect jury trial for either-way offences, framing it as a practical solution to the Crown Court backlog. But dismantling one of the oldest and most fundamental protections in English common law to spare the state administrative inconvenience is not pragmatism — it is a dangerous precedent dressed in managerial language.