Does South Africa use jury trials?
Not used
Jury system abolished in 1969, last trial heard in 1969, no current jury trials.
South Africa is one of 4 countries classified “Not used” for jury trials — 14% of the 29 with data.
Source
- Taken from
- Wikipedia: Jury trial
- Last checked
- 7 July 2026
- How it was classified
- Classified by a language model from the source text, then checked against hand-verified reference countries.
Nearby countries
- Uganda
- Jury trials used Jury trials are used in the US for determining facts and reaching verdicts in criminal cases.
- Greece
- Jury trials used Jury trials were a regular part of the ancient Greek justice system, with large citizen juries deciding facts in serious cases.
- Italy
- Limited use / mixed courts Italy uses a court system with laypersons for serious crimes like murder, not general jury trials.
- Argentina
- Jury trials used Argentina implemented jury trials for serious criminal cases since November 2015.
- Hungary
- Limited use / mixed courts Hungary uses a mixed court system with lay judges for specific cases rather than traditional jury trials.
- Switzerland
- Limited use / mixed courts Only Geneva Canton has genuine jury trials, others use mixed judge-jury courts, but unified code may eliminate them.
Other laws in South Africa
- Death Penalty
- Fully abolished
- School Corporal Punishment
- Banned
- Military Conscription
- No conscription
Every law in South Africa → · Which countries use jury trials? →
A visual reference compiled from Wikipedia’s law-by-country articles, not legal advice. Laws change and summaries simplify — check a primary source before relying on anything here.