Concepto de juez lego y su participacion en la organizacion judicial del derecho procesal penal aleman de adultos

Abstract

Participation of lay judges in the accusatorial system of criminal justice is understood as one of the main, though not imperative, elements, because that element is not present in the structure of the penal system introduced in Chile in 2000. Consequently, the above calls for, on the one hand, research on the German comparative law, chief source of the Chilean reformed criminal law, in order to comprehend the meaning of some notions, such as lay judge, escabino [member of an “escabinado”], escabinado [in Spain, Germany, France, Italy or Sweden, mixed jury made up of professionally qualified judges and ordinary citizens], and jury, all of which relate to lay judges’ participation principle; and, on the other, full exploration of the competence and present structure of the German criminal courts for adults and lay judges’ participation in them, so that a concrete idea of what must be understood by “lay judge” and of the institutional frames s/he adopts can be espoused.