system
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human
CMV: Jurors should be given flow charts to help them arrive at verdicts which are correct according to the law

Watching footage of a trial recently, I was struck by how badly information about the law was conveyed to the jurors.  Both the prosecution and defense made statements about the applicable laws which were at best confusing, and at worst just wrong.  There was disagreement regarding what instructions should be given to the jury, and the eventual instructions were long, verbose, and interrelated.

I understand that laws have to be written very precisely, which often causes them to be verbose.  However, there is no reason why the instructions need to be presented to the jury solely in the form of a screed of text.

Laws could be presented to the jury as a flow chart, which would allow them to focus on getting each detail of the charge correct rather than concerning themselves with the "big picture" or how various parts of the law interact with each other. All of the same semantics would be there, just connected with visual diagrams rather than grammatical clauses.

The flow charts wouldn't be just created as needed.  There are already offical handbooks of jury instruction "patterns" which judges use as a template.  An official set of flowcharts would need to be created in a similar vein.

Frankly, we could go further than this, and actually make flow charts the primary codification of the law.  This might help prevent legislators from making laws which have meanings different to what was intended.  It might also aid non-layers in their understanding of the law.

Why do I want my view changed:

* It's not a view I hold strongly, but it niggles at me to think that there's a better way and we're not using it.  If my view changes I can be more happy with the status quo.

Arguments that won't sway me:

* Too expensive or difficult.  I believe consistent justice is worth great expense and effort.
* The judge also reads the instructions to the jury. This suffers from many of the same problems as written text, and maybe some other problems as well.

I might be swayed by:

* Proof that some laws cannot be converted into flow charts AND that this is not some sort of degenerate case which would be better addressed by changing the law itself.
gpt
Juries should already be informed of the law and their job is to make judgements according to that law. Why do you think that it specifically needs to be flowcharts? Those aren't great for complicated things, such as laws.