Welcome to the Commission on the American Jury Project. We are excited to be continuing the combined work of the American Jury Project and the Commission on the American Jury.
Our mission is two-fold. First, we want to advance the implementation of the ABA Principles on Juries and Jury Trials by working with courts, rulemaking bodies, state legislatures and the organized bar. We will assist by providing information about the principles and guidance in establishing pilot projects to implement these jury innovations. Our resources, which include written materials as well as the support services of our commission members and staff, are available to interested organizations.
Secondly we want to reach out to the public, third party interest groups, government officials, national media, and the legal profession as a whole on the importance of jury service and jury reform.
The importance of jury service to the American system of justice is universal. We want to share our ideas with your jurisdiction and also hear from you. Many good ideas start at the local level and this site will be a clearing house of ideas for all who are interested in improving jury service.
Thank you for your interest in the Commission on the American Jury Project. We invite you to join in our effort to create better justice through better juries.
Save the Date for the 2010 Jury Symposium in Washington, D.C. October 21-22, 2010. See below for information from the 2008 Jury Symposium:
2008 National Symposium on the American Jury System
October 16-17, 2008
Fordham University School of Law
Louis Stein Center for Law and Ethics
New York, NY
Jury Commission member Hon. James Holderman is profiled in the ABA Journal's Legal Rebels blog.
Resolution Adopted
At the 2008 Annual Meeting, the House of Delegates approved resolution 110 replacing the JAD Standards Relating the Juror Use and Management with the ABA Principles for Juries and Jury Trials. You may access the Principles with or without commentary through this website. To order a hardcopy, please call the ABA Service Center (800) 285-2221.
The Jury System Impact Award was established by the Commission on the American Jury Project to recognize an individual or organization that has made significant contributions and tremendous efforts to the improvement, preservation and strengthening of the American Jury System.
Congratulations to the 2009 Award recipients Hon. Susan R. Bolton and Patricia Lee Refo, Esq.
The 2009 Jury System Impact Award will be presented at the Annual Meeting in Chicago at the TIPS reception at the Metropolitan Club in the Sears Tower.
On Wednesday, September 12, 2007 the United States Postal Service held the First-Day-of-Issue Event for the Jury Duty Stamp at the rotunda of the Manhattan courthouse at 60 Centre Street (Foley Square) in New York, New York. Robert J. Grey, Past President of the ABA, and Judge Judith S. Kaye, Chief Judge of the state of New York, are among the speakers. The Jury Duty Stamp was unveiled at the 2006 National Symposium on the American Jury System in Dallas, Texas.
The Commission on the American Jury Project consist of 13 members (a chair appointed by the ABA President and three members each appointed by the Judicial Division and the Sections of Criminal Justice, Litigation, and Tort, Trial and Insurance Practice) and an Advisory Committee of 20 members.
Thomas Jefferson called the jury system "the only anchor yet imagined by man by which a government can be held to the principles of its constitution." The ABA currently has a significant body of work including general principles on the right to jury trial, jury selection, conducting a jury trial, deliberations and decision-making, post-verdict activity and other principles and practices relating to jury management. The task of the American Jury Project, established in 2004 by former American Bar Association President Robert Grey, was to review the current standards and determine how they should be consolidated, improved or updated.
On October 15, 2004, the American Jury Project held a National Symposium on the American Jury System at Washington and Lee University School of Law in Lexington, Virginia. The purpose of the symposium was to vet the revision and consolidation of the current ABA standards on the jury system. Symposium participants included judges, lawyers, academics, jury experts, court administrators, bar leaders and others interested in the health of our nation's jury system. The revised principles were overwhelmingly approved by the ABA House of Delegates during the ABA Midyear Meeting in February 2005, and are now available to the public.
For more information about the ABA Commission on the American Jury Project, please contact
Amanda Raible via e-mail
or by phone at 800.238.2667 x5450.
