Human Rights, Serious Crime and Criminal Procedure - College of ...

Why bother with Rights when Public Safety is at risk?is administered in public and in an open way, and (perhaps) byserving as one form of check on the power of officials. Justificationsof these kinds are put forward in favour of preserving theuse of juries in (some) criminal trials, and of preserving the laymagistracy. Much more could be written about participation, thevalue of which is clearly linked to concepts of citizenship andcommunity. It resonates particularly with much contemporarythought on communitarian themes and on restorative justice,but its significance is dependent on neither. It can be seen as avalue wherever social co-operation is required.(ii) CommunicationThe value of communication has two separate aspects. One iscommunication with the public or the community: proceduresshould be transparent and communicative in their nature, in thesense that it should be plain to people what their purpose andeffect is. This is an instrumental value, inasmuch as it contributesto the transparency of the processes. A separate value iscommunication directly with the defendant, in the sense oftreating him or her as a citizen worthy of respect as a thinkingmember of the social community. This means that it should beclear what the purposes of all the procedural steps are, and theirapplication in the particular case should be explicable andjustifiable in a way that respects him or her as an autonomousperson. In many criminal justice systems these are pious hopes,because the system is dominated by professionals (police, lawyers)whose methods of working often do not involve patientexplanations of each procedural step. Yet this is not to doubt thevalue of communication; rather, it casts doubt on whether weachieve it in our system, or whether we even count it as anobjective.(Hi) Upholding victims' rightsThe third set of values raises issues which go well beyond thescope of these lectures. Much is heard about the importance offairness for defendants when insisting that criminal justicesystems respect fundamental values, but rather less has beenheard until recent years about fairness to victims. This provokesthe question: what are the procedural rights of victims? So far asthe European Convention on Human Rights is concerned, noprocedural rights for victims find a place in either the 1950Declaration or any of the subsequent Protocols, although victimshave the same rights as other citizens, such as the right to10