In France, voting is not mandatory, and citizen-jury is not a thing.
this post was submitted on 25 Mar 2026
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No forced voting in Germany and no Jury Duty (it’s crazy this is even a thing in the US). There are no EU mandates for any of that.
In Italy voting is a compulsory duty. You don't get a fine, but if you don't vote for a certain number of times you won't be allowed to vote anymore.
I wouldn't say that compulsory voting is "stupid". There are some very good arguments for it.
Firstly, it addresses the imbalance of cost of voting (the time and effort you need to spend to cast your vote) with its effect (the tiny fraction of impact your vote has on the outcome). This disproportionately affects lower income voters, especially in some countries like the US, where voting usually happens on a weekday.
Secondly, the outcomes are no longer won "by turnout". In other words, to win the election you can no longer merely convince your supporters to vote for you, you need to actually convince people who don't support you to vote for you.
Thirdly, and perhaps less convincingly, this stimulates the interest in the decision and the outcome. Since you have to vote, you may be inclined to actually form your opinion about the elections, and follow up on its outcomes.
I see you point, at the same time I’m afraid of what would be my country if everyone forced to vote considering all propaganda and disinformation. Though it’s more of campaigning system issue than voting system issue
EU is 27 different countries with different system. In some voting may be mandatory in other it isn't
I believe that very few European countries have jury trial, and often it's limited to some case/part of the trial. So definitely not a standard European experience
I don't think most European countries have juries. Judging should be done by people who are qualified to do so, i.e. judges.
While Belgium does have mandatory voting, most other countries do not.
I like the idea of mandatory voting. I also like the idea of the "I voted" -Bratwurst or other kind of snack offered at booths in Australia.
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.
There is a form of jury duty in Germany: Schöffe (honory judge).
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.
certain countries like Australia
Have you ever heard the saying that there are no kangaroos in Austria?
Pretty sure I saw some. In Tierpark Schönbrunn.
There is no such thing like EU citizenship. All countries have still some kind of independence and own laws. As far as I know nobody can be forced to vote, and in almost all countries there is no jury duty except of France, Austria and Belgium(?). But I am not sure about that.
Of course there is something like EU citizenship. Read the TEU and TFEU. It is conferring its own set of rights but is dependent on someone being a citizen of an EU member state. Hovever there are cases were people who are the one aren't the other.