For Mercy's Sake: Why Labour should not axe trial by jury

Full essay by Geoffrey Robertson KC. Preface by Unlock Democracy.

Trial by jury occupies a unique place in Britain's constitutional tradition. Long before the emergence of universal suffrage or representative democracy, it gave ordinary citizens a direct role in the administration of justice and, in doing so, established an enduring check on the power of the state. For centuries, juries have served - in the words of historian E. P. Thompson - as “the last defence of English liberties”, protecting individuals from arbitrary authority, tempering the strict application of the law with common sense and mercy, and helping to shape the development of Britain's democratic culture.

From Magna Carta and the struggles of the seventeenth century to some of the defining legal controversies of the modern era, the independence of the jury has been woven into the story of Britain's constitutional evolution. Few civic institutions have so consistently placed the judgement of citizens at the heart of public life.

Today, that tradition faces its most significant challenge in generations. Proposals to curtail the right to trial by jury are presented as an administrative response to pressures within the criminal justice system. Yet, as Geoffrey Robertson KC argues in the essay that follows, the consequences reach far beyond questions of efficiency. They concern the balance between citizen and state, the character of British justice, and the future of a centuries-old institution.

It’s a question of particular resonance for Labour. Juries have protected radicals, reformers and dissenters whose struggles helped secure freedoms later embraced by the labour movement. Robertson argues that curtailing jury trial is therefore not simply a change to legal procedure, but a challenge to principles with deep roots in Labour’s own political inheritance.

Geoffrey Robertson KC is a leading human rights barrister, author and former UN appeal judge. Below he traces the long history of trial by jury to argue that the present crisis in the courts - a crisis trial by jury did not create - should not become the occasion for dismantling one of Britain’s oldest democratic safeguards.

This essay was written before the recent change of government. It was first published in April 2026 by the Bar Council.