The jury system may exist primarily to protect the state's reputation rather than the defendant's rights.
The paper argues the jury acts as a 'moral alibi' that allows the state to offload accountability for verdicts onto ordinary citizens. It suggests that a truly independent jury would be institutionally intolerable, so the system is designed to keep juries just ineffective enough to remain under state control while maintaining the appearance of popular legitimacy.
THE MORAL ALIBI How the Jury System Legitimises State Power in Adversarial Justice Systems
SSRN · 6454298
The trial by jury is widely celebrated as a cornerstone of democratic justice — a shield between the citizen and the coercive power of the state. This paper argues otherwise. Rather than functioning as a genuine check on institutional authority, the jury system operates as what this paper terms a "moral alibi": a structural mechanism through which the state offloads accountability for its verdicts onto twelve ordinary citizens, lending the appearance of popular legitimacy to outcomes it fundamen