The Right to a Constitutional Jury

Abstract:     
Constitutional rights, qua moral rights, give their holders moral procedural rights. These procedural rights have two dimensions: a claim dimension and a response dimension. The claim dimension includes the right to voice grievances for rights violations and to ground the complaints within an adequate institutional setting. The response dimension includes the addressee’s duty to give an impartial and reasoned response to the right holder. The assessment of existing constitutional practices in regard to moral procedural rights must be conducted in terms of whether such rights are adequately embedded in those practices. Constitutional review by a supreme or constitutional court is one adequate arrangement for embodying moral procedural rights. An alternative institutional setting for embodying moral procedural rights can also be considered. This setting is the constitutional jury. While the constitutional jury is a practicable institution and can deliver impartial and reasoned responses at least as well as its judicial counterparts, its greatest advantage is that it respects more fully equal political liberty.

Keywords: Judicial review, Constitutional review, Juries

Accepted Paper Series