LONDON, United Kingdom - A radical proposal to scrap jury trials for most criminal cases in England and Wales has been drafted by the UK's Justice Secretary, David Lammy, in a bid to tackle a crippling backlog of court cases, according to a leaked government document reported on Tuesday, 25 November 2025. The move, if enacted, would represent one of the most significant alterations to the British legal system in centuries and notably mirrors the path Kenya took shortly after independence to reshape its own judiciary.

Under the circulated plans, only the most serious offences—such as murder, rape, manslaughter, and select “public interest” cases—would be heard by a jury of peers. This could result in an estimated 75% of cases currently heard in Crown Courts being decided by a judge alone. Downing Street has stated that “no final decisions have been taken” but confirmed it is right to question which cases require a jury, signalling that the government is seriously considering the measures.

The primary driver for this proposal is an unprecedented case backlog in the UK's Crown Courts, which reached a record high of nearly 80,000 cases by June 2025. This figure has almost doubled since 2019, with some trials now being scheduled as far out as 2029, prompting ministers to seek drastic solutions to prevent what a recent judicial review called a potential “total system collapse”.

The proposal from Mr. Lammy, who also serves as Deputy Prime Minister, is reportedly more extreme than an earlier review by Sir Brian Leveson, a former senior judge. In a report published in July 2025, Sir Brian recommended creating an intermediate court where a judge would sit with two magistrates for mid-ranking offences, a move designed to ease the burden on the Crown Court.

A Familiar Echo: The Kenyan Experience

For legal observers in Kenya, the British debate strikes a familiar chord. Kenya, whose legal system is founded on English common law, abolished jury trials for criminal cases after gaining independence in 1963. The decision at the time was part of a broader effort to decolonise the nation's institutions and address concerns that colonial-era juries, often composed of Europeans, could not deliver impartial justice in a newly independent, multi-ethnic nation.

Since then, all criminal cases in Kenya have been adjudicated by magistrates or judges. The UK's current predicament provides a unique lens through which to re-examine Kenya's 62-year experience with a judge-led system. Proponents of jury trials argue they are a democratic cornerstone, a vital check on state power, and ensure that verdicts reflect community values. Critics, however, contend that juries can be expensive, time-consuming, and susceptible to bias or manipulation, and may lack the legal expertise to handle complex cases.

Shared Challenges of Judicial Backlogs

While the UK is considering abandoning juries to solve its backlog, Kenya's experience demonstrates that doing so is not a panacea for judicial inefficiency. The Kenyan Judiciary has also grappled with significant case backlogs for years, driven by underfunding, staffing shortages, and rising case filings.

According to the State of the Judiciary and the Administration of Justice (SOJAR) Report for the 2024/25 fiscal year, the backlog of unresolved cases in Kenya rose by 20 percent. The report highlighted that while courts handled over 621,000 cases, a significant number remained unresolved, with the Judiciary facing a funding deficit of approximately KSh 22.12 billion. However, the same report also celebrated a 104% case clearance rate, indicating that more cases were resolved than filed within the year, pointing to the success of initiatives like virtual courts and court-annexed mediation.

The parallel struggles with court delays in both the UK and Kenya—one with juries and one without—underscore that the architecture of a trial system is just one factor among many affecting the timely delivery of justice. Issues of judicial funding, staffing, case complexity, and infrastructure investment appear to be universal challenges.

The UK proposal has already faced a fierce backlash from senior legal figures, who have described it as “the biggest assault on our system of liberty in 800 years” and warned it could “destroy justice as we know it.” As the British government weighs a decision that could fundamentally reshape its justice system, it looks towards a future that, in many ways, resembles Kenya's past—a testament to the different paths nations take within the shared tradition of common law.