ARGENTINA: The book CIVIL JURY was published

                   

The AAJJ has always maintained its strong commitment to the implementation of trial by jury in civil and commercial matters, as required by Section 24 of the Constitution. 

Section 24. Congress shall promote the reform of the present legislation in all its branches, and the establishment of trial by jury

We are very clear that as long as Argentina remains mired in a written civil process by file, - even if it is digital - full oral proceedings in all courts will take much longer to become a reality. Thus, the presence of the jury in the civil court is today the only guarantee for oral proceedings and publicity to be seriously implemented in the country.

The lack of oral and public civil trials even affects the development of adversarial litigation in criminal courts, since 80% of the country's lawyers are dedicated to civil matters. 

Universities lack incentives to teach and train law students in adversarial litigation techniques, since the practice in the courts is still 100% written. It is a vicious circle that is very difficult to break and requires bold and creative actions: one of them was to promote the civil jury.

Our efforts were finally crowned in December 2020, when Chaco enacted an exceptional civil jury law for the first time in the world outside of common law (global impact) y (see).

Andrés Harfuch and Alberto Binder (directors)

To accompany this event, Editorial Ad-Hoc has just published the book directed by Alberto Binder and Andrés Harfuch, El jurado civil, which compiles some of the most important articles ever written in the world about civil jury trials. 

The book will be a fundamental theoretical support for implementing civil oral proceedings with juries in the country, as well as being a jewel for researchers, students and legal academics.

The book is part of volume n° 12 of the prestigious Jury Trial and Citizen Participation Collection, also directed by Alberto Binder and Andrés Harfuch and which is today an essential reference in the world of Spanish-speaking juries. 

The work features legendary articles by famous scholars who have decisively influenced the development of the civil jury in common law. 

Paula Hannaford Agor, Paul Carrington,
Harry Kalven Jr and Jacqueline Horan.

They have been fully translated into Spanish and bear the signature of extremely prestigious authors such as Shari S. Diamond , Valerie P. Hans , Harry Kalven Jr. , the Australian professor Jacqueline Horan , Paul D. Carrington , Paula L. Hannaford , B. Michael Dann, G. Thomas Munsterman and Lewis Mayers.

Of particular note is the exceptional article dedicated to the analysis of the civil jury trial law of the province of Chaco, written by Shari S. Diamond and Valerie P. Hans , who even recorded a video to promote the work at its presentation.

CHACO Province, Argentina: Indigenous Civil Jury is about to be real

Elizabeth González, leader of the Qom Nation

Chaco province is a pioneer in the world in extending the trial by jury to civil matters. Until now, only criminal cases were included. Argentina highlights a historic step for access to justice.

It is a dream that is about to come true. And that will change reality forever.

One of the meetings of the consultation, March 2020.
The pandemic delayed the process.

Chaco is getting closer to full implementation of an Indigenous trial by jury. An important meeting is scheduled for tomorrow. This meeting is aimed at drafting the set of rules for the consultation of the three Indigenous Peoples of Chaco: Wichí, Qom, and Moqoit. 

The meeting plans to begin at 4:00 p.m. in the House of History and Culture of the Bicentennial of Fontana.

The jury bill in four langauges:
Qom, Wichí, Moqoit and Spanish

As in the criminal jurisdiction, the move towards Indigenous civil jury represents an unprecedented event in Argentina and Latin America (global impact). Although there are countries, such as Bolivia, where the Judiciary foresees a kind of splitting for those who have an indigenous worldview, the Chaco model is integrated into the institutional framework (historical day). 

The Chaco civil jury law has an indisputable world class level, since it simultaneously regulates completely innovative aspects for Argentine civil procedural law:

1) It establishes a civil jury of twelve members, presided over by a judge who will instruct the jury on the law, and a general unanimous verdict. A special verdict may also be rendered. The jury will try class actions, consumer rights collective disputes, tort cases of over half a million pesos and collective environmental and land disputes.

2)  Establishes by law the civil adversarial litigation in a mandatory oral and public trial.

3)  The jury will have gender equality. The jury will be composed of six women and six men.

4)  Indigenous jury:  If the plaintiff and the defendant belong to the Wichí, Moqoit or Qom Indigenous Peoples, the twelve jurors will be of that ethnic group.

5)  Provides both a discovery hearing and a case management hearing. 

2019, discussing the indigenous jury

We present here invitation videos in each official language. The invitation card (PDF) mentions a constitutional requirement: that the consultation is contemplated in Convention 169 of the International Labor Organization ( ACT 24,071). This is important, since on several occasions acts, court decisions and executive orders were drafted that directly affected the life of Indigenous communities, without respecting the right to consultation. 

QOM PEOPLE

WICHI PEOPLE

MOQOIT PEOPLE

See more news:

- Diario Norte (27797219: "Los juicios por jurados civiles y comerciales indígenas están más cerca de implementarse" (ver)

JUICIO POR JURADOS CIVIL: JOHNSON & JOHNSON deberá pagar dos mil millones de dólares por un talco cancerígeno

El pasado martes 1° de junio, la Corte Suprema de Justicia de los Estados Unidos hizo pública la sentencia en la que rechazó un recurso planteado por la compañía Johnson & Johnson, que intentó infructuosamente revocar una indemnización del jurado de más de 2000 millones de dólares. 

Es una noticia de alto impacto en Argentina que, con la sanción de (ver Ley Jurado Civil Chaco), busca que este tipo de prácticas abusivas de grandes conglomerados sean decididas por los ciudadanos comunes, a través del jurado civil (art 24 de la Constitución Nacional).

El jurado determinó que el talco para bebés tenía asbesto, 
un mineral altamente cancerígeno.

LOS HECHOS

Johnson & Johnson fue acusada de haber producido durante décadas polvos de talco con asbesto. Según pudo probar la parte actora (un colectivo de madres que perdieron a sus bebés y/o que sufrieron cáncer), en el año 1973 los propios científicos de la empresa sugirieron que debían reemplazar el material con el que fabricaban los talcos por maicena. Pero nunca se hizo, dado que resultaba más costoso y la empresa no quiso resignar sus ganancias.

Antigua publicidad del talco Johnson´s Baby Powder.

Diversas mujeres fueron afectadas por el uso del producto, y se probó que dicho uso fue la consecuencia directa de la enfermedad que contrajeron: cáncer de ovarios. Aproximadamente 20 mujeres de distintos Estados presentaron una demanda colectiva contra el gigante farmacéutico mundial  y la llevaron a juicio por jurados civil por daños y perjuicios. 

El veredicto del jurado fue contundente: culpable por unanimidad. Además, fijaron indemnizaciones compensatorias y daños punitivos en favor de las demandantes por un total de 4690 millones de dólares. El récord absoluto en el mundo.

Ante esto, Johnson & Johnson apeló ante la Corte de Apelaciones de Missouri con el objetivo de que se anulara el veredicto del jurado, basándose en que ya habían retirado el producto del mercado y que, además, había diversos estudios científicos independientes que probaban que el talco Johnson´s Baby Powder era seguro, no contenía asbesto y no producía cáncer.

La Corte de Apelaciones rechazó el pedido de la empresa y mantuvo el veredicto del jurado, aunque redujo el monto de los daños punitivos a la mitad: específicamente 2100 millones de dólares. Ante esto, la empresa interpuso un recurso para que la cuestión fuera finalmente dirimida por la Corte Suprema de los Estados Unidos.

Los jueces Kavanaugh y Alito se excusaron
por conflicto de intereses

La Corte rechazó tratar el caso (certiorari negativo) y así quedó firme la decisión de la Corte de Apelaciones de Missouri. Johnson & Johnson debe pagar los 2100 millones de dólares a las víctimas. 

Noticias Relacionadas:

- Página 12 (02/06/2021): "Johnson´s Baby: la empresa tendrá que pagar una demanda millonaria por su talco cancerígeno". (Ver aquí)

- BBC News (01/06/2021): "Corte Suprema de Estados Unidos rechaza caso de la empresa Johnson & Johnson por su talco cancerígeno" (US Supreme Court rejects J6J Talc cancer case appeal). (ver aquí)

- CNN (01/06/2021): "La Corte Suprema no revisará el veredicto en contra de Johnson & Johnson por 2000 millones de dólares" (Supreme Court won't review $2 billón verdict against Johnson & Johnson). (Ver aquí)

- Washington Post (01/06/2021): "Talco Johnson & Johnson Baby Powder: la Corte Suprema no revisará el recurso interpuesto por Johnson & Johnson contra el veredicto que la condenó a pagar una indemnización de 2100 millones de dólares" (Johnson & Johnson baby Powder: Supreme Court won't hear company's challenge of $2.1 billon cancer case award). (Ver aquí)

ON A HISTORICAL DAY FOR DEMOCRACY IN ARGENTINA, CHACO PASSED A LAW ADOPTING TRIAL BY CIVIL JURIES.

 

The Chaco Legislature, the first to vote on a civil jury law
in the world outside the common law

December 16th, 2020 will be remembered in the days to come as the date on which everything changed for the Argentine civil process. In a session that had dramatic overtones, typical of the clamorous legislative debates, the Chaco Legislature passed into law the Civil Jury Act that establishes section 24 of the Constitution and rewrote the History of Constitutional Law in Argentina. It is the law 3325-B.

DOWNLOAD THE BILL

(ver)

Thus, the Chaco´s House became the first in all of the civil law countries to pass a law that establishes juries in civil matters. A difficult feat to accomplish. Memorable. Unequaled. 

Governor Jorge Capitanich, father of the 
civil and criminal jury in Chaco

The bill was submitted by the executive branch in September (Global Impact: civil jury in Chaco). Furthermore, it is the first time that a civil jury system has been legislated outside the Common Law. This way, the citizens of Chaco will participate not only in the trial of criminal cases, but will also decide in the most relevant cases of civil procedure. 

Thus, Chaco places itself at the international forefront in matters of democratization of Justice and will be a model to follow for Argentina and Latin America.

Wide impact in the press

Perhaps a few years will need to go by and several more laws will have to be passed to truly assess the importance of this memorable day of December. The Government and representatives of Chaco will go down in history as those responsible for having opened the doors of Civil Justice to the citizens , in an irreversible step towards orality and judicial democratization.

Representatives Nadia García Amud, Hugo Sager
and Juan M. Pedrini, heroes of the jury´s feat

Those who follow the progress of the Justice Reform and  trial by jury in Latin America know the resistance generated by the end of the inquisitorial obscurantism, especially in criminal matters. That opposition multiplies exponentially when we speak of civil justice. It is no wonder: controversies over tort liability, class actions cases, environmental litigation, cases of freedom of speech, among other issues of great political and economic importance, were historically handled by large interest groups, thanks to the arbitrary discretion allowed by the culture of the written procedure. A feudal and medieval justice in the XXI century. 

Now the People will decide those cases, in public and oral trials that will forever transform the logic of a justice system so important for democratic coexistence. Citizens themselves will be in charge of demonstrating, once again, that those who trust in the participation of the People in deciding matters of public importance are not only not making mistakes, but are building the foundations of a true Republic.

Governor Capitanich recieves Andrés Harfuch,
VP of the AAJJ, the day before the sanction.

CHRONICLE OF THE MEMORABLE DAY

The discussion in the Legislature was not exempt from the tension typical of such a transcendent change and with great interests in dispute. It is a story that deserves to be told, so that future generations who enjoy the benefits of the civil jury will not forget all that was at stake. What happened in that venue was memorable, an epic feat with a happy ending for the jury of the National Constitution. 

The very idea of a law that establishes full orality in the civil jurisdiction –and with juries– unleashed the fury of the most old-fashioned sectors of the legal profession and scholarship: "embarrassment", "shameful session", "it is unconstitutional", "untrained lay people cannot render a verdict on a civil matter","people have no training", "a law imported from Buenos Aires" (Jurassic Park). 

It is impossible not to evoke the parliamentary debate in the House of Representatives of the United States, at the end of the Civil War in 1867, to reform its Constitution. President Abraham Lincoln's goal was to pass the 13th Amendment to abolish slavery.  

Spielberg's immortal film "Lincoln" portrayed the fierceness of these debates like no other. The abolition of slavery won by just a handful of votes and after several scenes of fighting, blackouts,  insults and feverish last-minute negotiations. In Chaco, representative Pedrini had to be hospitalized with 25 pressure after finishing the debate.

The wrathful supporters of slavery

Let's go back to Chaco and its jury law. In the morning, representative Luis Obeid (Liberal Party), suggested a valuable contribution to the law: that there be a special master next to the judge to assist him in class actions litigation. The majority party accepted it and thus secured a vote that was fundamental.  Two legislators from the UCR (Radical Party) were not present, which reduced the opposition two key votes.

When everything was ready for the vote, after six hours of extreme tension in which two other laws were tightly voted, Congressman Aurelio Díaz (Workers Party) had to leave to see the eye doctor because of a severe eye condition. The UCR and CER bench (Peronists not aligned with the current administration) took advantage of the situation and rose from their benches in order to prevent a quorum. The session was down.

Eli Cuesta (CER), angrily rebukes another representative
when the session resumes.

That is when the cunning and experience of Hugo Sager, president of the Legislature, was set in motion. The majority party remained seated in their benches, while the UCR and CER -determined to give the Governor a political defeat at all costs in such an important project - remained in the building, but abandoning their benches. There were insults, yelling, recriminations and cross taunting. It was a dramatic and suspenseful 20 minutes. The session was falling apart and, with it, the civil jury law, caught up in a local political dispute.

And, suddenly, the unexpected. The majority leader, Juan Manuel Pedrini, went in person together with representative Liliana Spoljaric to the eye doctor to look for the Trotskyist legislator Aurelio Díaz, who agreed to give a quorum only if it was accepted that the State could also be sued in the collective actions. The majority party agreed and Díaz returned to his bench and voted against. When all was lost, the session was revived. There was a quorum again.

The Radical Party, off their benches,
laughs at the majority party.

The atmosphere was charged with total tension and drama. You had to see the faces of the opposition when they saw Aurelio Díaz sitting back on his bench. The move to overturn the Civil Jury Act had failed. Leaving a session without a quorum is a valid parliamentary resource, but one that carries very high risks that the opposition paid dearly: the ruling party, now with quorum, could vote with the members present who had remained in their seats. They decided to do it immediately and without the usual speeches. The opposition flocked to the venue to try to twist the outcome, but it was too late. The civil jury became law.

16 votes in favor, 4 against and 10 abstentions

THE HEROES OF THE EPIC ACCOMPLISHMENT

Gloria Salazar, 
Minister of Justice

The main characters of this feat have a name and last name, which will be inscribed in the great history of jury trials. We are talking about the Governor of Chaco, Jorge Capitanich, the sponsor of this law, just as he had done with the Criminal Jury Act; the Minister Gloria Zalazar; Undersecretary of Justice Lourdes Polo  and her team, Camila Parra and Fernando Sosa, and Undersecretary of Planning Leandro Álvarez and his team, Camila Arce and Joaquín Dudik. All of them were the main architects of this great achievement, together with the advice of the INECIP, the AAJJ, the CEJA and Pensamiento Civil.

Lourdes Polo Budzovsky, 
Underscretary of Justice

The Chaco Legislature is also commended for being the first law House in Latin America to pass a law of trial by civil jury outside the Common Law. Special mention to House Representatives Nadia García Amud, Jessica Ayala, Liliana Spoljaric, Juan Manuel Pedrini, Hugo Sager and Luis Obeid, without whose commitment the sanction of this law would not have been possible.

Juan Manuel Pedrini,
head of the Peronist block

Nadia García Amud (PJ),
 General Legislation

Hugo Sager, president of the House

Luis Obeid (Liberal)

Jessica Ayala (PJ)

Aurelio Díaz (Workers Party), key in 
the quorum, even if he voted against

Lili Spoljaric (PJ)

THE CHACO CIVIL JURY TRIAL LAW

Chaco’s Civil Jury Act 3325-B has an indisputable world-class hierarchy, since it simultaneously regulates absolutely innovative aspects for Argentine civil procedural law:

1) Makes oral and public civil trials mandatory. 

2) Establishes a civil jury of twelve members, the trial is presided by a judge who will instruct the jury on the law, and a general unanimous verdict. A special verdict may also be rendered. The jury will try class actions, consumer rights collective disputes, tort cases of over half a million pesos and collective environmental and land disputes.

3) Establishes by law the civil adversarial litigation in a mandatory oral and public trial.

4) The jury will have gender equality: the jury will be composed of six women and six men.

5) Indigenous jury: if the plaintiff and the defendant belong to the Wichí, Moqoit or Qom Indigenous Peoples, the twelve jurors will be of that ethnic group.

6) Provides both a discovery hearing and a case management hearing.

TV INTERVIEW

Read the news here:

- LATAM Legal (18/12/20): "Chaco aprobó el juicio por jurado para procesos civiles y comerciales, y es pionera en Latinoamérica" (ver)

- Chaco Todo el Día (17/12/20): "Instauran los Juicios por Jurados civiles y comerciales en el Chaco" (ver)

- 3500 Noticias (19/12/20): "Spoljaric: “El Chaco hace historia, los ciudadanos participarán en la administración de la justicia Civil y Comercial” (ver)

- Vía País (18/12/20): "Livio Gutiérrez se expidió sobre la Ley de Juicios Civiles y Comerciales por Jurados" (ver)

- Chaco por Día (17/12/20): "La ministra de Justicia calificó de “histórica” la sanción de la ley de juicios por jurados en el fuero civil y comercial" (ver)

- Infobarranqueras (17/12/20): "Juicios por Jurado en el Chaco: "Es una de las leyes más trascedentes de los últimos años en el país" (ver)

- Diario Judicial (18/12/20): "Jurados para todos los fueros" (ver)

- El Ciudadano de Santa Fe (17/12/20): "Chaco aprobó el juicio por jurado para procesos civiles y comerciales, y es pionera en Latinoamérica" (ver)

- Prensa Obrera (20/12/20): "Juicio por jurados en Chaco: una posición independiente frente a la disputa por el control de la justicia" (ver)

-Chacoenlínea.com (21/12/20): "En un día histórico para la Democracia, Chaco aprobó la Ley de Juicio por Jurados Civil"  (ver la nota original)

- DataChaco.com (20/12/20): "Bienvenidos Jurados, que se haga la luz" (ver)

-Class Actions en Argentina (20/12/20): "Sancionaron en Chaco una ley de jurado civil y procesos colectivos (*CHA)" (ver)

GLOBAL IMPACT: THERE WILL BE A CIVIL JURY LAW IN CHACO; ARGENTINA

Governor Jorge Capitanich

In an unprecedented worldwide event, the Governor of Chaco sent to the Legislature a bill that establishes the trial by jury in civil matters.  Hopefully, it will be enacted into law this year and will become effective in 2021.

Thus, thanks to Chaco, Argentina joins the group of nations such as the United States and some provinces of Canada, to try their civil matters by juries. This law will be a before and after for the justice systems of Argentina and Latin America. 

The trailblazing province of Chaco is the first Argentine province to hold both a criminal and civil jury trials, as ordered by our 1853 Constitution (Section 24). Chaco's extraordinary undertaking marks a historical milestone that Argentina should be very proud of.

Not in vain the father of Political Science, Alexis de Tocqueville, described in this way in 1835 the benefits and the importance of the civil jury: 

“The institution of the jury, limited to criminal matters, is thus always in danger; once introduced to civil matters, it resists the time and efforts of men. If the jury could have been suppressed from the mores of the English as easily as their laws, it would have completely succumbed under the Tudors. It is, then, the civil jury who really saved the liberties of England.”

THE REASONS FOR IMPLEMENTING THE LAW

The adaptation of the civil process in Chaco to the requirements of the new Federal Civil and Commercial Code is the main reason for the enactment of this law. Indeed, the civil code of 2015 has triggered unpostponable and irreversible changes in the ancient and stagnant Argentine civil process, which has been mired in a completely written and secret procedure for more than 200 years.

Argentina’s only real advancement in civil procedure in the past 25 years are the replacement of the typewriter by the computer, moving paper filing to electronic filing (but filing nonetheless), and a conference in chambers that has nothing to do with a public trial. In the XXI century, millions of Argentine pesos a year are still being spent to buy thread and needles to sew the files.

The usual landscape of a civil law court:
mountains of papers

All civil cases in the country are tried in writing and secrecy in bench trials organized as in the 15th century Spanish Inquisition, with massive delegation of functions to court staff and officers, and without any notion of oral and public trial whatsoever.

The final result of this "justice" is an infinite delay in the civil proceedings, which affects basic human rights.

Argentina was recently sanctioned by the IACHR (Inter-American Court of Human Rights) because it took twelve years to compensate the parents of a teenager who suffered a very serious accident in a playground (see Furlan and Family Case vs Argentina). The case started in 1990 and ended in 2013.

If there had been a civil jury procedure, the trial would have finished with a verdict in no more than three days, and with all the evidence presented at trial in open court.

Some paragraphs of the IACHR ruling show the shameful status of civil justice in Argentina and the reason for its urgent reform.

186. "From the arguments presented by the State, no specific reasons emerge to justify why a civil proceeding that should not have lasted more than two years (…) ended up lasting more than twelve years."

190. Bearing in mind the reasons outlined above, this Court considers that the State has not demonstrated that the delay prolonged for more than 12 years is not due to the conduct of the authorities (…).

232. From the evidence of the record, the Court observes that Sebastián Furlán was not even heard directly by the judge presiding over the suit for damages. On the contrary, there is evidence in the record that Sebastián Furlán appeared in person twice before the court, but he was not heard on those occasions (…).

265. For all the aforementioned reasons, the Court considers that the disintegration of the family unit has been proven, together with the suffering endured by all the family members as a consequence of the delays in the civil trial, the manner in which the judgment was executed and the other problems that Sebastián Furlan faced in trying to obtain adequate rehabilitation.

This will be in Chaco: a jury in open court to try civil cases

      CONTENT OF THE CIVIL JURY LAW

The Chaco civil jury law has an indisputable world class level, since it simultaneously regulates completely innovative aspects for Argentine civil procedural law:

1) It establishes a civil jury of twelve members, presided by a judge who will instruct the jury on the law, and a general unanimous verdict. A special verdict may also be rendered. The jury will try class actions, consumer rights collective disputes, tort cases of over half a million pesos and collective environmental and land disputes.

2)  Establishes by law the civil adversarial litigation in a mandatory oral and public trial.

3)  The jury will have gender equality. The jury will be composed of six women and six men.

4)  Indigenous jury:  If the plaintiff and the defendant belong to the Wichí, Moqoit or Qom Indigenous Peoples, the twelve jurors will be of that ethnic group.

5)  Provides both a discovery hearing and a case management hearing. 

THE STORY BEHIND THE LAW

             

Undoubtedly, the overwhelming success of the implementation of criminal juries in Argentina was decisive in opening the floodgates for the civil jury discussion. In particular, the province of Chaco and Governor Capitanich have been some of the main promoters of the criminal jury in the country since 2013.

Seven years ago: discussing the implementation
of criminal jury trials in Chaco

It is still impossible to measure the gigantic step that the Chaco has just taken. For example, England, Wales, Scotland, Ireland, Australia, New Zealand and the other Commonwealth countries got rid of the civil jury some years ago and only retain it for minor matters, such as libel or when the court ordered. Also, Japan held civil jury trials during the period of occupation of the North American bases in Okinawa until well into the 70s, and today it is striving to recover it.

Governor Jorge Capitanich and Minister of Justice
Gloria Zalazar

Those who made this feat possible in Chaco, along with the Institute of Criminal and Social Science Comparative Studies and the Argentine Association of Jury Trials (INECIP and AAJJ by their Spanish acronyms), have been the Minister of Justice Gloria Zalazar; the Undersecretary of Justice Lourdes Polo, and her team with Camila Parra and Fernando Sosa and the Undersecretary of Planning Leandro Álvarez and his team Camila Arce and Joaquín Dudik.

The AAJJ warmly congratulates the Government of the Province of Chaco for this magnificent law that will forever change the Argentine justice system. 

MENDOZA, Argentina: Governor Suárez announced the expansion of the jury to more crimes and the implementation of the civil jury

Rodolfo Suárez, Governor of Mendoza

The Governor of Mendoza, Rodolfo Suárez, gave his first public address before a joint session of the Mendoza Legislature to open the 180th legislative period. There he announced a set of measures for justice reform that he will carry out during his term. The news that there will be trial by jury for certain civil cases, eg. recovery and return of assets obtained corruptly by public officials, shocked the judicial community of the country.

It is an extraordinary innovation that deserves full support and that will put Mendoza at the forefront of Latin America.

Suárez and former Governor Alfredo Cornejo 

Trial by jury in Mendoza is a resounding success. The almost fifteen jury trials carried out during the 2019-2020 period have had a great impact and acceptance in society. Furthermore, there has not been a single obstacle in its implementation, thanks to the commitment of the Supreme Court, the judges, prosecutors, lawyers and court personnel. 

The trial by jury law of Mendoza is structurally brilliant, since it maintains the characteristics of the classic jury trial model: 12 citizens and gender equality (6 men and 6 women), led by a professional judge who will instruct the jury on the law, a unanimous and final verdict, a voir dire hearing with four peremptories, and a new trial in the case of a hung jury (see).

As we already reported here, the jury in Mendoza was implemented by former Governor Alfredo Cornejo, with decisive support at the time from the political opposition embodied in current senator Anabel Fernández Sagasti (see). 

For this reason, Governor Suárez has decided to continue along the same line and deepen it. The Undersecretary of Justice, Marcelo D'Agostino (the key person in the Government), presented to the governor the plan to expand the criminal jury to more serious offences. Until now, only murder in the first degree cases were tried, but from now on they will be extended to several other crimes and felonies.

As we have already said, the Governor also announced that he plans to implement trial by jury in the civil jurisdiction with the aim of expanding citizen participation, starting with the acts of corruption due to the extinction of the civil domain. Thus, for example, cases such as the plaintiff against the local Tupac Amaru leader, Nélida Rojas and her husband for irregularities in the delivery of social housing, could be carried out with a twelve person and unanimous civil jury.

Undersecretary of Justice, Marcelo D´Agostino

"With this we will be able to expand the participation of people in the field of Justice," they explained from the ruling party.

Read more:

-Diario El Sol: "Las reformas claves que Suárez impulsará en la Justicia" (ver)