Courts Act 1971

40 Abolition of special juries and supplemental provisions

(1) Special juries shall be abolished, and sections 18 and 19 of the [1949 c. 27.] Juries Act 1949 (under which special juries were preserved for certain commercial cases) shall cease to have effect.

(2) No judgment after verdict upon any indictment, or after verdict in any other trial by jury in any court, shall be stayed or reversed by reason—

(a) that the provisions of this Act about the summoning or impanelling of jurors, or the selection of jurors by ballot, have not been complied with, or

(b) that a juror was not included in the relevant jurors' book or jury list, or

(c) that any juror was misnamed or misdescribed, or

(d) that any juror was unfit to serve.

(3) Subsection (2)(a) above shall not apply to any irregularity if objection is taken at, or as soon as practicable after, the time it occurs, and the irregularity is not corrected.

(4) Nothing in subsection (2) above shall apply to any objection to a verdict on the ground of personation.

(5) Subject to the express provisions of this Act, all enactments and rules of law relating to trials by jury, juries and jurors, shall continue in force and, in criminal cases, apply to proceedings in the Crown Court as they applied to proceedings before a court of oyer and terminer or gaol delivery.

(6) In this Part of this Act—

• " court " except where the context otherwise requires, means the Crown Court, the High Court, or a county court,

• " the appropriate officer " means such officer as may be designated for the purpose in question by arrangements made by the Lord Chancellor.

(7) Schedule 4 to this Act shall have effect for supplementing this Part of this Act.