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Comment by DouweM | Hacker News Reader

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DouweM·

Correct, no juries in the Netherlands.

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wow. Err, what may I ask do you use?

Civil law systems by and large do not use trial by jury. The judge (or judges) pronounces verdict.

The Netherlands is it seems one of the few democracies that do not use juries for any trials. Civil or not. The UK certainly has judge only civil trials (commercial law is basically a way for two barristers and a judge to get paid for sitting and talking for two months)

http://www.dutchnews.nl/news/archives/2008/04/judge_calls_fo...

Most democratic countries use civil law, actually, though I don't think that's particularly relevant. There's a much stronger correlation between language and system of law than there is between form of government and system of law. Note the similarity between [0] and [1], and the complete lack thereof between [1] and [2].

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Anglospeak%28800px%29.png

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:LegalSystemsOfTheWorldMap...

[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Democracy_Index_2011.png

What common law countries call a "civil case" is not the same was what civil law countries call "a case". It's confusing.

As for the distribution of languages and laws, it's largely due to history. Civil/code jurisdictions show the extent of the former Roman empire and later the influence of Napoleonic Code. Common law countries are almost universally within the Anglosphere and have a common legal heritage commencing in the 1066 Norman Conquest.

Well, it seems to me that many countries do have some sort of a jury system but they use it rarely or not at all. Also, there may be laymen involved (for instance, Sweden and Finland may have two lay judges plus one professional one) but those don't really count as juries.

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