Aduntiatio of Justice
2.
It is to be hoped that further progress can be made with
the provision of legal aid in criminal cases. It is understood
that half of the trials before the District Court do not qualify
for legal aid and these presumably include some quite serious
offences where the accused may receive a substantial sentence.
That being so, it would seem desirable to take early steps to
extend legal aid to all criminal cases before District Courts.
On the
15. ↑ "There remains the more difficult question of trial by jury,
It is appreciated that there may well be no great desire for an
extension of the jury system among the Chinese population, and that the
the lack of suitable jurors is an important limiting factor. If
however it were feasible in any class of case to give the
accused an option for trial in the Supreme Court before a jury,
this would be a welcome development. It is appreciated that
such an option could hardly be introduced for a trial period and
it would be hard to estimate in advance how many accused would
opt for jury trial if given it. An alternative might be to
provide for the option of trial in the District Court by a judge
sitting with two lay assessors (eg local JPs), thougzetes
the difficulty of finding sui-
ipane ptozoolne. If provision could be made for committal
proceedings before trial in the District Courts, as before trial
Court
in the Supreme, this might prove helpful; and anything that
could reasonably be done to give offenders charged with more
serious crimes the chance of a jury trial would be welcome.
3.
[Iven werleaf)
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