Juries are a key part of the Australian legal system.
It is a civic duty as an Australian citizen to serve on a jury when you are called to do so, and people can be fined if they don’t.
Jury service allows members of the community to take an active role in the administration of justice.
Dr Andrew Burke is a Lecturer at the Macquarie Law School and Director at Juris Doctor.
"Juries are a way of involving the community in the legal process. And in that sense juries are a part of Australian democracy, so that when somebody is charged with a serious crime, the people who get to decide if that person is guilty or not is not a lawyer or a judge, but 12 ordinary members of the community who might make up the jury."
Juries in Australia are only used for certain types of trials, explains Jacqui Horan, Associate Professor at the Faculty of Law at Monash University.
"The juries in Australia are only in cases that are very serious. So, we have them for murder trials, armed robbery trials, and trials of sexual assaults. The less serious criminal cases like theft are just heard without a jury with a judge."
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