GHT
I'll Lock Up
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A great tradition
If you'll all pardon me for getting all philisophical here, I find it fascinating that the British and American experience of jury duty is essentially the same. This is due to the fact that our legal system traces its origins right back to the Anglo Saxon law courts of centuries ago. For all its flaws, it's a wonderful system, nobody has really improved on it since the middle ages. Our jury system has been a bullwark for our liberties since its inception.
Anyhow, I can just imagine someone in a doublet back in Shakespeare's time, or in a top hat in Dickens's time, having exactly the same conversation.
Edward, whether it's fact or myth, I know not, but someone that I know from my days at Queen Mary College, insists that UK jurors are selected for jury service from the electoral register. To that end he's never enrolled on the register and has therefore never voted. I'm sure there must be some law that requires electoral registration, but even without that, his so called privacy is hardly that when he's 'known' to his local authority to whom he pays his council tax, as well as the utility companies.
He has now turned seventy, has never voted, never been called for jury service and never been chased by the authorities.
Your thoughts?