Abstract:In Australia and other countries with adversarial court systems, such as Ireland and the United Kingdom, deaf people have not typically been permitted to serve as jurors because of a prohibition against having a sign language interpreter in the jury room. The United States is one country where there is an exception in that deaf people frequently serve as jurors in several states. We know that deaf people can understand courtroom discourse via sign language interpreters, but there has been no evidence as to how deaf people can participate in the jury deliberation process, or the impact of having a sign language interpreter present as “stranger” in the jury room. This had never been tested until this study, funded by the Australian Research Council Linkage Program scheme, which is the first of its kind internationally to investigate whether deaf people can realistically participate as a juror in a trial and in the jury deliberation process. The project took the form of a simulated mock trial in a district court in Sydney with: a real jury; real police informants; current practicing lawyers; and a recently retired judge of the court. The results of this project will demonstrate whether the prohibition of a stranger (i.e., a sign language interpreter) in the jury room should be overturned. It will also explore the extent to which a deaf person can participate in jury deliberations via sign language interpretation, and how this study will pioneer domestic and international law reform. This article will: briefly track the prior research that led to this study and the current case law affecting the area; share the results of interviews with mock-trial participants and the stakeholder focus groups on their perspectives on the feasibility of deaf people serving as jurors; and present recommendations for the inclusion of deaf people as jurors.

中文翻译：

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改变国际司法格局：聋人公民身份和陪审团服务的观点

摘要：在澳大利亚和其他具有对抗性法院系统的国家，例如爱尔兰和英国，由于禁止在陪审室配备手语翻译，聋人通常不被允许担任陪审员。美国是一个例外，聋人经常在几个州担任陪审员。我们知道聋人可以通过手语翻译理解法庭话语，但没有证据表明聋人如何参与陪审团审议过程，或手语翻译作为“陌生人”出现在陪审团中的影响房间。在这项由澳大利亚研究委员会联系计划计划资助的研究之前，这从未被测试过，这是国际上首次调查聋人是否可以作为陪审员实际参与审判和陪审团审议过程。该项目采用了在悉尼地区法院进行模拟模拟审判的形式，其中包括： 一个真正的陪审团；真正的警察线人；现任执业律师；和最近退休的法院法官。该项目的结果将证明是否应该推翻陪审室禁止陌生人（即手语翻译）的禁令。它还将探讨聋人在多大程度上可以通过手语翻译参与陪审团审议，以及这项研究将如何引领国内和国际法改革。本文将： 简要跟踪导致本研究的先前研究以及影响该领域的当前判例法；分享与模拟审判参与者和利益相关者焦点小组的访谈结果，了解他们对聋人担任陪审员的可行性的看法；并提出让聋人担任陪审员的建议。