I’m mainly talking about:
- Voting (at federal elections)
- Jury Duty (at a courtroom)
I know that in certain countries like Australia for example: citizens there actually have to vote otherwise they face a A$20 (12€) fine for literally not putting a vote. There was a case where a guy was sued and received a A$303 (182€) fine on top of that for disregarding the previous penalities. To me, that sounds stupid, voting shouldn’t be “forced” down on citizens, if that’s the right way to say it.
What about the scenario you receive a letter from the courts that you’re selected as a juror? Let’s say you got a letter saying that you’ve been chosen within a pool and assigned a number (like a draft lottery) whether the courts decide if you’re “fit” enough to be a juror at a trial. The thing is, has this happened to you or anyone you know in your country? If so, what is it like receiving a summons?
Speaking for germany: no mandatory voting, no jury duty.
Being part of a jury is voluntary and you have to apply for it. It’s also probably quite different from the US jury system.
Same as most European countries, Germany has the adversarial system - no jury, just the judge.
Don’t know about elsewhere, but in Germany, for some trials, there are an additional 1 or 2 “lay judges” - non-professional judges from the community.
Quite similar here in Czech Republic. No jury duty, because there is no jury and voting is absolutely up to you.
These lay judges are the remnants of the jury system, they are basically a mini jury.
You can however called up to be a Schöffe: https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schöffengericht (no English version available, your friendly LLM next door should help out)
Schöffen duty can be mandatory, if not enough volunteers can be found (or are not deemed trustworthy enough by the local council).
There is a form of jury duty in Germany: Schöffe (honory judge).