Chapter 27: Where Would You Rather Be Tried

Common law deference

________ to the power of the jury to acquit is thought necessary to guarantee the jurys independence; civilians see no reason to defer in the same way to their trial courts.

common law practice

The ________ has significant advantages for the defense because many facts relevant for sentencing- notably, the fact of prior convictions- are considered irrelevant at the stage of finding guilt for the commission of the crime.

adversarial system

The ________ that prevails in the common law world today is based on a radical division of the four functions of investigation, accusation, factual determination, and punishment.

These systems are defined according to the way in which the three different func

tions of the trial are allocated

These functions are

gathering evidence and presenting it at trial, charging the accused with a crime, and judging guilt or innocence

inquisitorial system

The _________ reflects the mentality of monarchical power; concentrating all the power in the judge is like thinking of the king as font of all political power.

accusatorial trial

The _____________ resembles constitutional democracy in modern European systems.

accusatorial system

The _______________ is a compromise between the outdated inquisitorial system and the common law adversarial system.

tripartite system of government

The adversarial system resembles the structure of the ___________________ conceived by Montesquieu and incorporated in the U.S. Constitution.