Legal Interpreter for the Jury: The Role of the Clerk of the Court in Spain
Keywords:
Jury, Spanish jury, verdict reasoning, clerk, lay participation, comparative legal systems, Jurado, jurado español, veredictos razonados, secretarios judiciales, España, participación de legos, sistemas jurídicos comparadosAbstract
The Clerk of the Court (secretario judicial) in Spanish provincial courts is an important legal actor in the proceedings of the modern Spanish jury, introduced in 1995. In contrast to the general verdicts of traditional common-law juries, Spanish juries must answer an often lengthy list of specific questions, and must provide the reasoning supporting these responses. Early on, many Spanish juries found the task of providing legally acceptable responses and reasons challenging. Because the law permits the clerk to enter the deliberation room to assist the jury in its writing of the verdict, the clerk has come to act as a principal intermediary between the formal demands of the law and lay citizens serving on the jury. The purpose of the present study is to analyze the role of the Clerk of the Court in Spanish jury proceedings, including the jury selection phase and the verdict writing process. Drawing on interviews with Clerks of the Court, we find that clerks’ views of appropriate intervention and clerks’ practices differ significantly across jurisdictions.
El secretario judicial de los tribunales provinciales españoles es un importante actor legal en los juicios por jurado modernos españoles, introducidos en 1995. Frente a los veredictos generales de los jurados tradicionales del derecho consuetudinario, los jurados españoles deben responder a una a veces extensa lista de preguntas específicas y deben proporcionar una justificación razonada a estas respuestas. En un primer momento, muchos jurados españoles encontraron difícil la tarea de proporcionar respuestas y razones legalmente aceptables. Como la ley permite entrar al secretario en la sala de deliberaciones para ayudar al jurado en la redacción de la sentencia, el secretario se ha convertido en el intermediario principal entre las peticiones formales de la ley y los ciudadanos que sirven de jurado. El propósito del presente estudio es analizar el papel del secretario judicial en los juicios por jurado españoles, incluyendo la fase de selección del jurado y el proceso de escritura del veredicto. A partir de entrevistas con secretarios judiciales, llegamos a la conclusión de que las opiniones de los secretarios sobre intervenciones adecuadas y las prácticas de los secretarios difieren de forma significativa entre jurisdicciones.
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