Glossary

The obligation of an institution or official to explain and justify decisions to a body with standing to examine them, and to accept consequences where standards were not met.

Fact-checkedSources: Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice (United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime)

Formal recognition that a laboratory or provider meets defined standards of competence, method validation, and quality management.

Across jurisdictions: Mandatory for certain forensic disciplines in some countries and voluntary in others.

Fact-checkedSources: European Network of Forensic Science Institutes (ENFSI), Forensic science (National Institute of Standards and Technology (United States))

A decision that a person is not guilty of the charge. In most systems it means the case was not proved to the required standard.

Not the same as a finding of factual innocence. Some systems mark the distinction explicitly, including through separate compensation arrangements.

Fact-checkedSources: International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (United Nations Treaty Series, vol. 999, No. I-14668) (United Nations)

A challenge to a decision, heard by a higher or different court, normally on the basis of legal error or procedural unfairness.

Across jurisdictions: Some systems provide a full rehearing at the first appellate level; most review for error rather than re-deciding the facts. How many tiers exist, and whether reaching the highest court is a right or requires permission, differ substantially.

Often confused with: Judicial review, Retrial

Fact-checkedSources: International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (United Nations Treaty Series, vol. 999, No. I-14668) (United Nations), Supreme Court Act (RSC 1985, c. S-26) (Government of Canada — Justice Laws Website (laws-lois.justice.gc.ca)), Judicial System in Japan / The Judicial System and Courts in Japan (Supreme Court of Japan (courts.go.jp))

The obligation to prove a disputed fact. In criminal cases it normally rests on the prosecution throughout.

Across jurisdictions: Some systems permit limited, defined reverse burdens for specific elements of specific offences. Whether these are compatible with the presumption of innocence is frequently litigated.

Often confused with: Standard of proof

Fact-checkedSources: International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (United Nations Treaty Series, vol. 999, No. I-14668) (United Nations)

The documented account of who held an item of evidence, and when, from collection to examination and presentation.

A gap does not merely weaken evidence; it can remove it from a case entirely.

Across jurisdictions: The principle is close to universal; the formalities are not. What must be recorded, who may sign, how long material is retained, and the consequence of a break — exclusion, reduced weight, or an argument for the jury — are set by national law and by laboratory accreditation requirements.

Fact-checkedSources: Strengthening Forensic Science in the United States: A Path Forward (National Research Council (National Academy of Sciences); hosted by the Office of Justice Programs, U.S. Department of Justice), European Network of Forensic Science Institutes (ENFSI)

The decision whether to bring a criminal case, typically applying an evidential test and then a public-interest test.

The order matters: a case that fails the evidential test is not saved by being important.

Fact-checkedSources: Guidelines on the Role of Prosecutors (United Nations (adopted by the Eighth United Nations Congress on the Prevention of Crime and the Treatment of Offenders, Havana, 27 August – 7 September 1990))

A body with legal authority to decide disputes and determine the consequences of its decisions, applying law to established facts and giving reasons.

Across jurisdictions: What counts as a court rather than a tribunal, and which bodies are treated as part of the judiciary, differs between systems.

Fact-checkedSources: International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (United Nations Treaty Series, vol. 999, No. I-14668) (United Nations)

A legally authorised process for establishing whether a criminal offence occurred, who was involved, and whether there is evidence capable of being tested in court.

Across jurisdictions: Who leads differs fundamentally: police with prosecutorial oversight, a prosecutor, or an investigating judge.

Fact-checkedSources: Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice (United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime)

The obligation to provide the defence with relevant material, including material that undermines the prosecution case or assists the defence.

Failures of disclosure are among the most commonly documented causes of wrongful conviction.

Across jurisdictions: Scope and timing differ substantially between systems, as does the consequence of a failure. Adversarial systems tend to frame it as a duty owed by one party to the other; inquisitorial systems tend to place the obligation earlier, on an investigation required to gather exculpatory material in the first place.

Fact-checkedSources: International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (United Nations Treaty Series, vol. 999, No. I-14668) (United Nations), Guidelines on the Role of Prosecutors (United Nations (adopted by the Eighth United Nations Congress on the Prevention of Crime and the Treatment of Offenders, Havana, 27 August – 7 September 1990)), Strafprozessordnung (StPO) § 160 — Pflicht zur Sachverhaltsaufklärung (German original text) (Bundesministerium der Justiz / Bundesamt für Justiz (Gesetze im Internet))

The requirement that the state follow fair and established procedures before depriving a person of liberty, property, or another important interest.

Across jurisdictions: A term of art in some constitutional systems. Others express the same protections as fair-trial rights, procedural fairness, or natural justice.

Fact-checkedSources: International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (United Nations Treaty Series, vol. 999, No. I-14668) (United Nations)

Material that may be used to establish a fact in a legal proceeding, subject to rules governing what may be admitted and how much weight it carries.

Across jurisdictions: Rules on admissibility, and on the consequences of unlawfully obtained material, differ substantially between systems.

Fact-checkedSources: International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (United Nations Treaty Series, vol. 999, No. I-14668) (United Nations)

Evidence given by a person with specialist knowledge, offering an opinion on matters outside ordinary experience.

Across jurisdictions: Admissibility standards and whether experts are appointed by the court or instructed by the parties differ substantially between legal systems.

Fact-checkedSources: Strengthening Forensic Science in the United States: A Path Forward (National Research Council (National Academy of Sciences); hosted by the Office of Justice Programs, U.S. Department of Justice)

A hearing before a competent, independent and impartial tribunal established by law, at which the person has the guarantees necessary for their defence.

Across jurisdictions: Expressed in Article 14 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and in regional human-rights instruments, with domestic effect depending on how each state gives effect to its treaty obligations.

Fact-checkedSources: International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (United Nations Treaty Series, vol. 999, No. I-14668) (United Nations)

The application of scientific methods to questions arising in legal proceedings, covering disciplines from chemical and biological analysis to the examination of documents, marks, and digital records.

Disciplines differ substantially in how well their underlying assumptions have been tested. Treating forensic evidence as a single category with a single reliability is a common and consequential error.

Fact-checkedSources: Strengthening Forensic Science in the United States: A Path Forward (National Research Council (National Academy of Sciences); hosted by the Office of Justice Programs, U.S. Department of Justice), Forensic science (National Institute of Standards and Technology (United States))

A police force with military status, performing ordinary civilian policing, typically alongside a separate civilian police service.

Across jurisdictions: Present in a number of countries and entirely absent from others. Military status principally affects the chain of command and discipline rather than the day-to-day work.

Often confused with: Military police, Police

Fact-checkedSources: Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice (United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime)

A body that examines whether an institution as a whole is operating to standard, looking at systems and patterns rather than individual cases.

Across jurisdictions: Inspection of places of detention may be carried out by a statutory inspectorate, an ombudsman, lay monitoring boards, an international body, or several in combination.

Fact-checkedSources: The United Nations Standard Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners (the Nelson Mandela Rules) (United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime)

The structural arrangements that allow judges to decide cases without direction from the government or the parties, including appointment procedures, security of tenure, and protected pay.

A protection for the people appearing before the court rather than a privilege of the office.

Across jurisdictions: Nearly universal as a stated principle and highly variable in institutional form. Some constitutions write tenure into the text; others leave it to statute or convention. Appointment, discipline and removal arrangements are where the practical differences lie.

Fact-checkedSources: International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (United Nations Treaty Series, vol. 999, No. I-14668) (United Nations), Basic Law for the Federal Republic of Germany (Grundgesetz), English translation (Bundesministerium der Justiz / Bundesamt für Justiz (Gesetze im Internet)), Judicial System in Japan / The Judicial System and Courts in Japan (Supreme Court of Japan (courts.go.jp))

A court’s examination of whether a public body acted within its legal powers and followed a lawful process.

Across jurisdictions: One of the least portable terms in this glossary. In some systems it means review of administrative action only; in others it also covers testing legislation against a constitution. Whether any court may set aside primary legislation — and whether that power sits in every court or in one specialised constitutional court — differs fundamentally between countries.

Often confused with: Appeal

Fact-checkedSources: What is the Rule of Law (United Nations (Rule of Law Unit)), Constitution of the Czech Republic (Act No. 1/1993 Coll., as amended) — official English translation (Ústavní soud (Constitutional Court of the Czech Republic)), Basic Law for the Federal Republic of Germany (Grundgesetz), English translation (Bundesministerium der Justiz / Bundesamt für Justiz (Gesetze im Internet))

The authority of a body to act in a matter, defined by territory, subject, or type of person. Also used to mean the territory itself.

Across jurisdictions: The double meaning causes frequent confusion: "in this jurisdiction" refers to a place, while "the court has jurisdiction" refers to authority.

Fact-checkedSources: Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court, 1998 (United Nations (Office of Legal Affairs))

A body of lay people, separate from the professional judges, brought in to decide questions the law entrusts to it in a particular trial.

Separate is the load-bearing word. A jury sits as its own body; lay judges sit on the bench beside the professionals. That structural difference, not the presence of non-lawyers, is what makes a jury a jury.

Across jurisdictions: Whether a jury is used at all, for which offences, and what it decides are three different questions with three different answers. Ireland requires one by constitution for criminal charges, subject to exceptions for minor offences, special courts and military tribunals. Austria runs juries alongside mixed benches, reserving them for the gravest offences. In England and Wales the Juries Act sets out when a majority verdict may be taken and puts a county court jury complete at eight; the Crown Court complement is NOT ESTABLISHED by anything read here, because the section governs majority verdicts rather than size.

Often confused with: lay-judge

Fact-checkedSources: Bunreacht na hÉireann / Constitution of Ireland — Articles 15.5.2, 28.3, 38, 40.4 (Office of the Attorney General (electronic Irish Statute Book)), Was sind die verfassungsrechtlichen und allgemeinen Grundsätze der Rechtsprechung? — Laiengerichtsbarkeit (Bundesministerium für Justiz (justiz.gv.at)), Juries Act 1974, section 17 — majority verdicts (The National Archives (legislation.gov.uk))

The principle that people should be treated according to rules that apply equally to everyone, and that decisions affecting them should be made by authorised bodies that are constrained by law and answerable for their decisions.

Across jurisdictions: Broad agreement on the principle coexists with very different institutional arrangements for delivering it.

Fact-checkedSources: Universal Declaration of Human Rights (United Nations)

The function of applying and upholding the law. Performed by police and also by customs, border, tax, regulatory, and other bodies with specific statutory powers.

A function, not an institution. Conflating it with "police" makes it hard to identify which body acted and therefore which oversight route applies.

Often confused with: Police

Fact-checkedSources: Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice (United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime)

A person without professional legal training who sits on the bench together with professional judges and takes part in the decision as a member of the court.

A lay judge is not a juror sitting somewhere else in the room. The seat is on the bench, and in some systems it carries the judge’s office and vote for as long as the hearing lasts.

Across jurisdictions: The office exists under different names and with materially different powers. Germany seats Schöffen on the Schöffengericht under the Courts Constitution Act; Japan’s saiban-in sit with professional judges and take part in sentencing; Austria seats Schöffen with one professional judge where the offence carries more than five years. Lay judges are selected differently too — in Austria at random from the electoral register. None of this generalises to systems not researched here.

Often confused with: jury

Fact-checkedSources: Was sind die verfassungsrechtlichen und allgemeinen Grundsätze der Rechtsprechung? — Laiengerichtsbarkeit (Bundesministerium für Justiz (justiz.gv.at)), Allgemeines zu Laienrichtern (Bundesministerium für Justiz, via oesterreich.gv.at), Gerichtsverfassungsgesetz (GVG), §§ 28, 29 and 30 — Schöffengerichte and the office of the Schöffe (Bundesministerium der Justiz / juris (gesetze-im-internet.de))

The requirement that law be published, reasonably clear, and generally prospective, so that people can know in advance what is required of them.

Fact-checkedSources: What is the Rule of Law (United Nations (Rule of Law Unit))

Arrangements by which the decisions of an institution are examined by a body that did not make them, including appeals, complaints bodies, inspectorates, and detention monitoring.

Different mechanisms answer different questions. A complaints body typically cannot quash a conviction, and an inspectorate typically cannot discipline an individual.

Fact-checkedSources: The United Nations Standard Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners (the Nelson Mandela Rules) (United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime)

A civil body with broad legal authority over a defined territory to prevent and detect offences, maintain public order, and protect people from harm.

Across jurisdictions: Structures range from a single national service to thousands of separate local agencies. Some countries also maintain a military-status gendarmerie alongside a civilian police service.

Often confused with: Law enforcement, Gendarmerie, Sheriff

Fact-checkedSources: Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice (United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime)

The rule that a person charged with a criminal offence is treated as not guilty until guilt is proved according to law, with the obligation to prove the case resting on the state.

A rule about who must prove what, and to what standard — not a statement of belief about whether a particular person did something.

Fact-checkedSources: Universal Declaration of Human Rights (United Nations), International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (United Nations Treaty Series, vol. 999, No. I-14668) (United Nations)

The public official who decides whether a criminal case should be brought, on what charges, and who presents that case in court on behalf of the public.

Across jurisdictions: Institutional position varies fundamentally: a constitutionally separate service, a body within a ministry, or a corps of judicial officers. Titles do not transfer safely between countries.

Often confused with: District attorney, Advocate, Investigating judge

Fact-checkedSources: Guidelines on the Role of Prosecutors (United Nations (adopted by the Eighth United Nations Congress on the Prevention of Crime and the Treatment of Offenders, Havana, 27 August – 7 September 1990))

The authority to decide whether to bring, continue, or discontinue a prosecution where the evidence would permit it.

Across jurisdictions: Some systems apply a principle of mandatory prosecution where evidence permits; others grant broad discretion. Most sit between the two, with exceptions to the stated rule.

Fact-checkedSources: Guidelines on the Role of Prosecutors (United Nations (adopted by the Eighth United Nations Congress on the Prevention of Crime and the Treatment of Offenders, Havana, 27 August – 7 September 1990))

The wider field of institutions responsible for protecting people from harm, including border and customs authorities, coast guards, civil protection, and emergency coordination.

Across jurisdictions: Which body holds which mandate varies more here than in any other part of the justice landscape. The same name can denote a military service in one country and a civilian regulator in another.

Fact-checkedSources: Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice (United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime)

The principle that everyone, including the government, is subject to law that is public, applied equally, and interpreted by independent courts.

Usually broken down into legality, legal certainty, equality before the law, independent adjudication, access to justice, and the prevention of arbitrariness.

Across jurisdictions: Formulations differ between authorities. The United Nations definition also requires consistency with international human-rights norms.

Often confused with: Law and order, Rule by law

Fact-checkedSources: What is the Rule of Law (United Nations (Rule of Law Unit))

How convinced the decision-maker must be before a fact is treated as established. Criminal cases use a higher standard than civil disputes.

Across jurisdictions: Expressed as "beyond reasonable doubt" in many common-law systems and as the judge’s inner conviction in several civil-law systems. The formulations are not straightforwardly equivalent.

Often confused with: Burden of proof

Fact-checkedSources: International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (United Nations Treaty Series, vol. 999, No. I-14668) (United Nations)

An authorisation, normally issued by a judge or other independent authority, permitting an action that would otherwise be unlawful, such as a search or an arrest.

Across jurisdictions: Who may issue a warrant, on what threshold, and which actions require one differ substantially between systems.

Fact-checkedSources: International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (United Nations Treaty Series, vol. 999, No. I-14668) (United Nations)