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The procedure described in the article would not be legal in modern English courts. A court (probably) cannot hand out summons to people on the street. At least

The procedure described in the article would not be legal in modern English courts. A court (probably) cannot hand out summons to people on the street. At least in England, the talesmen would have to voluntarily accept to serve on the jury, it is by invitation rather than compulsion. While courts historically did have the power to compel bystanders to serve against their will, that power has almost certainly lapsed.

londons_explore 4y ago
Is there a legal basis for the jury duty selection process? It is it just custom and the court can decide any procedure for selecting a jury pool from the population? And if so, random selection from the mall would be one such method...
- SkittyDog 4y ago
  Can't speak for Canada, but in the US, the jury process is a mix of black-letter law (explicit legislative acts) and administrative law (rules made by the court system under broad powers granted to it by legislation). Tradition and precedent were the inspiration for a lot of modern law, but we explicitly re-implemented most of it via legislative and/or administrative law.
- deleted 4y ago
  [deleted]
manarth 4y ago
> would have to voluntarily accept to serve on the jury, it is by invitation rather than compulsion Jury service is compulsory in the UK. "most people would decline a jury summons if it was voluntary, mainly for the inconvenience. Avoiding it, however, is ill advised: you cannot simply refuse and it is a criminal offence to not answer a jury summons without reasonable cause." - https://www.law.ac.uk/resources/blog/everything-you-need-to-know-about-jury-service/ https://www.law.ac.uk/resources/blog/everything-you-need-to-...
- zinekeller 4y ago
  > the talesmen would have to voluntarily accept to serve on the jury, it is by invitation rather than compulsion Of course you've remove an important qualification. Legally-speaking, you couldn't decline, but in practice since most judges recognise that a talesman is more inconvenienced than a regularly-summoned juror, it's effectively voluntary (and indeed you can decline, see this case in 2016: http://archive.today/2021.07.03-080147/https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/trial-is-saved-after-passer-by-joins-the-jury-h9qn30xb9 http://archive.today/2021.07.03-080147/https://www.thetimes....). If you were summoned normally, you haven't much of a choice.

londons_explore 4y ago

Is there a legal basis for the jury duty selection process? It is it just custom and the court can decide any procedure for selecting a jury pool from the population? And if so, random selection from the mall would be one such method...

SkittyDog 4y ago
Can't speak for Canada, but in the US, the jury process is a mix of black-letter law (explicit legislative acts) and administrative law (rules made by the court system under broad powers granted to it by legislation). Tradition and precedent were the inspiration for a lot of modern law, but we explicitly re-implemented most of it via legislative and/or administrative law.
deleted 4y ago
[deleted]

manarth 4y ago

> would have to voluntarily accept to serve on the jury, it is by invitation rather than compulsion Jury service is compulsory in the UK. "most people would decline a jury summons if it was voluntary, mainly for the inconvenience. Avoiding it, however, is ill advised: you cannot simply refuse and it is a criminal offence to not answer a jury summons without reasonable cause." - https://www.law.ac.uk/resources/blog/everything-you-need-to-know-about-jury-service/ https://www.law.ac.uk/resources/blog/everything-you-need-to-...

zinekeller 4y ago
> the talesmen would have to voluntarily accept to serve on the jury, it is by invitation rather than compulsion Of course you've remove an important qualification. Legally-speaking, you couldn't decline, but in practice since most judges recognise that a talesman is more inconvenienced than a regularly-summoned juror, it's effectively voluntary (and indeed you can decline, see this case in 2016: http://archive.today/2021.07.03-080147/https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/trial-is-saved-after-passer-by-joins-the-jury-h9qn30xb9 http://archive.today/2021.07.03-080147/https://www.thetimes....). If you were summoned normally, you haven't much of a choice.