What is it with Humza Yousaf? Scotland’s First Minister has plenty on his plate: police are investigating the SNP’s financial affairs, feminists are pushing back against his plans for gender recognition reform and now lawyers are boycotting the pilot scheme for jury-less rape trials that he has vocally championed. At some point, this stops being simple misfortune and instead suggests serious political miscalculation.
Criticism of the Scottish government’s plans to try rape cases without a jury has been building. Now, with at least seven legal bodies having voted to reject the proposed changes to court proceedings, a near unanimous boycott looks likely to render the pilot scheme unworkable. Good. From Bud Light to Maybelline make-up, calls for boycotts are two-a-penny nowadays. But this action by lawyers deserves public backing.
Juries are more sophisticated and less ignorant than Humza Yousaf credits them
Trial by jury has long been a hallmark of civilisation and a key component of democratic society.
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