Editing Jury (section)

==== Italy ====
In [[Italy]], a [[Civil law (legal system)|civil law]] jurisdiction, untrained judges are present only in the [[Corte d'Assise]], where two career magistrates are supported by six so-called ''lay judges'', who are chosen by lot from the registrar of voters. Any Italian citizen, with no distinction of sex or religion, between 30 and 65 years of age, can be appointed as a lay judge; in order to be eligible as a lay judge for the ''Corte d'Assise'', however, there is a minimum educational requirement, as the lay judge must have completed his/her education at the ''Scuola Media'' (junior high school) level, while said level is raised for the ''Corte d'Assise d'Appello'' (appeal level of the Corte d'Assise) to the ''Scuola Superiore'' (senior high school) degree. In the Corte d'Assise, decisions concerning both fact and law matters are taken by the [[stipend]]iary judges and "lay judges" together at a special meeting behind closed doors, named ''Camera di Consiglio'' ("Counsel Chamber"), and the Court is subsequently required to publish written explanations of its decisions within 90 days from the verdict. Errors of law or inconsistencies in the explanation of a decision can and usually will lead to the annulment of the decision. A Court d'Assise and a Court d'Assise d'Appello decides on a majority of votes, and therefore predominantly on the votes of the lay judges, who are a majority of six to two, but in fact lay judges, who are not trained to write such explanation and must rely on one or the other stipendiary judge to do it, are effectively prevented from overruling both of them. The ''Corte d'Assise'' has jurisdiction to try crimes carrying a maximum penalty of 24 years in prison or life imprisonment, and other serious crimes; felonies that fall under its jurisdiction include [[terrorism]], murder, manslaughter, severe attempts against State personalities, as well as some matters of law requiring ethical and professional evaluations (e.g. [[assisted suicide]]), while it generally has no jurisdiction over cases whose evaluation requires knowledge of law which the "lay judges" generally do not have. Penalties imposed by the court can include [[life sentences]].