Scotland's most senior prosecutor Elish Angiolini maintains a court is the only appropriate forum for determining guilt or innocence and she says she deplores Megrahi's efforts to put his information out into the public domain via the Internet.

VOA: standard.2009.09.19

Nevertheless, an overwhelming majority of Americans consider juries the fairest way of determining guilt.

ECONOMIST: American juries

The judiciary -- not the police -- should be responsible for considering charges, determining guilt, and assigning appropriate punishment.

CNN: Rights group: China may not be ready for labor camp reforms

Eventually, Mr Straw plans to overhaul the youth courts to separate the functions of determining guilt and setting the punishment.

ECONOMIST: Youth crime