The right to a jury trial is an essential protection against an authoritarian state. Juries may be flawed, but the ability of a jury to return even a perverse verdict is one of the guarantees of a free society. It should not be given up lightly.
So Andy Burnham’s decision to scrap Sir Keir Starmer’s plan to dramatically restrict the number of cases that could be heard by a jury is a welcome one. It is the second such change to criminal justice policy made by the new prime minister and Alex Norris, his new justice secretary.
