Civil Justice: Lay Judges in the EU Countries
Mots-clés :
Lay judges, civil justice, commercial courts, labour courts, mixed tribunals, civil jury, Jueces legos, justicia civil, tribunales de comercio, tribunales de trabajo, tribunales mixtos, jurado civilRésumé
Lay judges fulfill important functions for the justice system of a country. In the European Union member states, scholars have analysed the use of lay judges in criminal cases. However, little is known about lay participation in civil justice. The paper introduces commonly cited reasons to have lay judges as well as the principal forms of lay participation and then surveys the EU countries for its implementation in civil cases. Mixed tribunals, involving lay judges under the leadership of a professional judge, are relatively frequent. Several countries have special labour courts or commercial courts with lay members and others have single lay judges, or all-lay judge panels. Roughly a third of the 28 EU member states have no lay participation in civil justice but only three of those have no lay judges in any branch of the courts. Almost all the reasons for including lay decision makers are served somehow by the existing forms, including providing different experiences and perhaps expert knowledge. The article concludes, citing non-EU states and lay participation in criminal and administrative courts as further evidence, that lay judges in one form or another are an element of European legal systems.
Los jueces legos cumplen funciones importantes para el sistema de justicia de un país. En los Estados miembro de la Unión Europea, académicos han analizado el uso de jueces legos en casos criminales. Sin embargo, se sabe poco acerca de la participación de los legos en la justicia civil. El artículo presenta las razones que habitualmente se citan para tener jueces legos, así como las formas principales de la participación de legos, para a continuación medir su implementación en casos civiles en los países de la Unión Europea. Son relativamente frecuentes los tribunales mixtos, en los que participan jueces legos, bajo la dirección de un juez profesional. Varios países tienen tribunales laborales especiales o tribunales comerciales con miembros legos y otros cuentan con jueces legos individuales, o jurados de jueces legos. Aproximadamente un tercio de los 28 Estados miembros de la UE no tienen participación de legos en la justicia civil, pero sólo tres de ellos no tienen jueces legos en ninguna sección de los tribunales. Casi todas las razones para incluir responsables legos se basan de alguna manera en las formas existentes, incluyendo ofrecer diferentes experiencias y, tal vez, el conocimiento de expertos. Citando Estados de fuera de la UE y la participación de legos en tribunales penales y administrativos como evidencia, el artículo llega a la conclusión de que los jueces legos, en una u otra forma, son un elemento de los sistemas legales jurídicos europeos.
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