Citizens and wetlands: evaluating the Ely citizens' jury

A citizens' jury (CJ) is a method to aid decision-making by public bodies, and is loosely based on the idea of a criminal jury. Ordinary members of the public, acting in their capacity as citizens concerned with the public good rather than consumers concerned with private interest, are drawn together to reach a public decision. The jury is independent, and its verdict is expected to carry some authority, derived from an understanding that the jury is representative, and the deliberation is satisfactory. A CJ was organised as part of a larger UR study which also conducted a contingent valuation survey on broadly the same valuation issue, land use in a former wetland region in Cambridgeshire, UK. A major aim of the study was to investigate whether CJs allow views of a different kind to those captured by contingent valuation surveys to be expressed - views couched in terms of public benefits, right and wrong, and the common good. If this is true, CJs offer a promising forum for articulating views, and even recommending decisions, about public goods including environment features. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.