Commission on the American Jury Project
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.
Dennis J. Drasco
Chair, Commission on the American Jury Project
2008 National Symposium on the American Jury System
October 16-17, 2008
Fordham University
New York, NY
More information
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.
At the 2007 Annual Meeting, revisions to the Section of Litigation Civil Trial Practice Standards were approved unanimously by the ABA House of Delegates. These revisions brought the Standards up to date with the ABA Principles for Juries and Jury Trials approved in 2005.
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.
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.
For more information about the ABA Commission on the American Jury Project, please contact
Rebecca DeSalvo
Email:
or by phone at (800) 238-2667 x5742.
