AN ESSAY ON THE IMPORTANCE AND NEGLECT OF THE MAGISTRACY

This essay is a sequel to one in which I argued that the symbolic func tion of the jury far outweighs its use.(1) Here, the argument is exten ded to explain that the magistrates' court has supplanted jury trial a s the central criminal forum, yet judges, law makers and lawyers devel op the common late and statute around jury trial, academics shape thei r research and teaching around it and journalists portray juries as th e only fact-finders and judges as the sentencers.(2)