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The (Un)Political Lay Judge System in Sweden - An Interview Study of Lay Judges’ Views on Their Roles and The Lay Judge System, from a Perspective of Politicization

Jansson, Sandra LU (2021) STVM25 20202
Department of Political Science
Abstract
Lay judges are used in the Swedish courts to attain a democratic representation of judges, but the system has received criticism for giving weight to political affiliation in a role that ought to be unpolitical. The aim of this study is to investigate politicization of the laymen system through lay judges’ own perspectives of their roles, and their views of the structure of the lay judge system. Hence, this study will examine whether, and then in what ways, party-political views, and ideologies of lay judges in court have been noticed. Semi-structured interviews with open-ended questions were conducted with lay judges in Malmö. To analyze the empirical data, the concept of politicization is used, with which categorizations of the interview... (More)
Lay judges are used in the Swedish courts to attain a democratic representation of judges, but the system has received criticism for giving weight to political affiliation in a role that ought to be unpolitical. The aim of this study is to investigate politicization of the laymen system through lay judges’ own perspectives of their roles, and their views of the structure of the lay judge system. Hence, this study will examine whether, and then in what ways, party-political views, and ideologies of lay judges in court have been noticed. Semi-structured interviews with open-ended questions were conducted with lay judges in Malmö. To analyze the empirical data, the concept of politicization is used, with which categorizations of the interview data were made. The analysis shows that all interviewees, except one, view their roles as unpolitical. However, politicization exists in the lay judge system, since most of the lay judges have experienced party-political affiliations shown in court through statements by other lay judges. The fact that it exists is problematic since it might lead to unfair and biased trials depending on which party representatives that appear in court. (Less)
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author
Jansson, Sandra LU
supervisor
organization
course
STVM25 20202
year
type
H2 - Master's Degree (Two Years)
subject
keywords
Lay judges, lay judge system, politicization, politicized courts, interview study
language
English
id
9033753
date added to LUP
2021-05-25 12:59:48
date last changed
2021-05-25 12:59:48
@misc{9033753,
  abstract     = {{Lay judges are used in the Swedish courts to attain a democratic representation of judges, but the system has received criticism for giving weight to political affiliation in a role that ought to be unpolitical. The aim of this study is to investigate politicization of the laymen system through lay judges’ own perspectives of their roles, and their views of the structure of the lay judge system. Hence, this study will examine whether, and then in what ways, party-political views, and ideologies of lay judges in court have been noticed. Semi-structured interviews with open-ended questions were conducted with lay judges in Malmö. To analyze the empirical data, the concept of politicization is used, with which categorizations of the interview data were made. The analysis shows that all interviewees, except one, view their roles as unpolitical. However, politicization exists in the lay judge system, since most of the lay judges have experienced party-political affiliations shown in court through statements by other lay judges. The fact that it exists is problematic since it might lead to unfair and biased trials depending on which party representatives that appear in court.}},
  author       = {{Jansson, Sandra}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  note         = {{Student Paper}},
  title        = {{The (Un)Political Lay Judge System in Sweden - An Interview Study of Lay Judges’ Views on Their Roles and The Lay Judge System, from a Perspective of Politicization}},
  year         = {{2021}},
}