On some communicatively salient complexities of knowledge asymmetries in a jury trial

Drawing on the intuitive assumption that several types of asymmetries characterize all kinds of human interaction and play a crucial role in any communicative event, this paper aims to explore knowledge asymmetries beyond a level of truism. We focus on exploring the concept of knowledge asymmetry in its communicative complexity, its inherent dynamics, as well as its multifaceted nature. As an illustration of this, we offer an analysis of the emergence of different asymmetries in a highly specialized institutional event, namely a criminal trial by jury within a US legal context. In particular, we present instances showing the emergence of these communicatively salient asymmetries between some of the different interactants found within this specific communicative situation.