URGENT. This affects everyone in England and Wales, though its full implications may not be immediately evident.

This Tuesday 27th October 2026, the cornerstone of our democratic rights and freedoms is again subject to debate in the House of Lords: The Courts and Tribunals Bill proposes further removals of our Common Law right to Jury Trial, not only taking with it the right to fair justice but, importantly also, the ultimate power of the people to refuse to enforce unjust legislation upon themselves. 

This Bill widens a power imbalance between state authority and individual liberties.

What makes Trial by Jury so uniquely important? 

The forgotten power of Jury Independence is the ultimate right of The People themselves to refuse to enforce unjust, prescriptive legislation enacted by parliament.

The dangers of prescriptive laws vs the safeguard of Jury Trials

The consequences of prescriptive laws dictating narrow, predetermined limits of right-and-wrong, have to be endured by those at ground level who will suffer from the missing nuances of such inflexible rules.

This is where a Jury Trial has the capacity to judge both the laws being applied, as well as each case itself. If a defendant breaks a prescribed law whilst acting on principled grounds, only a Jury Trial can acquit them, declaring them not-guilty despite having ‘broken the law’. A judge or magistrate will not do this.

Lord Erskine…

"Criminal Justice in the hands of the people is the basis of freedom. While that remains, there can be no tyranny, because the people will not execute tyrannical law against themselves. Whenever it is lost, liberty must fall along with it."

The dangers of a single judge vs the safeguard of a jury of 12 peers

No one person has the right, the authority nor the purity to judge another nor take another’s freedoms away. What healthy individual would want the burden of sole judgement over others?

That is why the responsibility for such judgement is placed before a jury of twelve peers to determine Truth, thus applying  human reason and conscience to each individual case with all its nuances.

Where this principle is universally understood, there is no need for excessively complex and confusing legislation: a complex legal system is a sign that justice through the application of human conscience is being lost. 

The Courts and Tribunals Bill ominously opens the way for discrimination by replacing 12 peers judging each case on its unique merits with a judge acting alone, according to a politically predetermined set of conditions, without considering whether those rules do justice or not.

How can this possibly benefit justice?

If people are not free to govern themselves in a legitimate Rule of Law then public servants are not serving but making orders.

Does Parliament have the authority to dismantle its own constitution?

The Constitution is the Framework for our democracy: it creates the boundaries within which our democratic government must operate. When legislation is deemed ‘unconstitutional’ this is a serious reproach because it is considered to violate the very principles of our democratic rights and freedoms; it contravenes primary, fundamental laws of operation and is therefore null and void. 

How  is it that Parliament  - an administration - operated by Public Servants can 'debate' to remove its own rule book?

This is a ‘petition’ in practical mechanism only: it is in fact a formal objection to the Courts and Tribunals Bill. It is a demand that our public servants cease any further attempt to remove our Trial by Jury and instead to restore it in ALL courts and cases.

You can also copy this and send directly to your MP: https://members.parliament.uk/FindYourMP

Dive deeper:

‘People own the law through the Jury’  - Calvin Perrins: https://youtube.com/shorts/GTGtTeI7hd8?si=T4QRDuVAimdk21bQ

'The People Govern their Country through the Jury' - https://www.commonlawconstitution.org/

‘Your Shield, Your Voice, Your Power’ - https://www.democracydefined.org/democracydefined-EIS5.htm