Cases in the first class would be reserved for High Court Judges only;
the second class would normally be for High Court Judges but the new
President of the High Court would have a discretion to remit a
particular case to a named District Judge; the third class would be for High Court Judges but the Chief Justice could direct generally that certain offences or groups of offences could be tried by District Judges; the fourth class would normally be for District Judges only but
there would be power to transfer an exceptionally complex or important
case to the High Court level.
47.
The main advantages are:
(1)
(2)
a constant capacity to match the
the judicial
work to the flow of business by flexible
assignment of cases in the third class;
a single office (albeit with outstations)
embracing completely unified pre-trial and
post-trial procedures and 2 single jury
management system;
(3) centralised administration, data collection
and monitoring.
The Attorney-General would retain a major influence on the level of
trial by a power to recommend that a case in the third or even the
fourth class be tried by a High Court Judge but the decision, after due
account had been taken of that recommendation, would lie with the
President of the High Court.
48.
In my view a reform on those lines would work well in Hong
Kong. The unresolved question about introducing trial by jury in the
District Court brings son uncertainty to the debate. One option might
be to restrict the right of trial by jury to the first and second
classes and any other particular cases tried by High Court Judges. A
second might be to give defendants in the third and fourth classes the
right to choose trial either by judge and jury cr by judge alone as in
some of the state courts in the United States.
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