Lay judge：非职业法官，指不具备法律资格或未经法律培训而行使司法职能，或与受过训练的法官一同行使司法职能的人员。

非职业法官在不同的法律系统中行使司法职能的方式也不同，主要有两类：一是一名非职业法官独自或几名非职业法官共同行使司法职能；二是非职业法官作为法庭顾问〔assessor〕或陪审法官与一名或几名职业法官共同行使司法职能。所以，在英国治安法院的非职业法官具有广泛的司法权，而且可以与职业法官一起在刑事法院审理对治安法院的判决提起上诉的案件。而在法国、德国和北欧的一些国家，职业法官与非职业法官组成混合法庭共同审理各种案件。此外还有一种非专业人员参与司法活动的典型形式，就是陪审团。但是陪审员在法庭上的任务只是查明案件事实 ，而不能称其为法官，其职责与正式的非职业法官不同。

为了更好的理解该词，以下是该词的英文释义：A lay judge, sometimes called a lay assessor, is a person assisting a judge in a trial. Lay judges are used in some civil law jurisdictions. Lay judges are appointed volunteers and often require some legal instruction. However, they are not permanent officers. They attend proceedings about once a month, and often receive only nominal or “costs covered” pay. Lay judges are usually used when the country does not have juries. Lay judges may be randomly selected for a single trial (as jurors are), or politically appointed. In the latter case they may usually not be rejected by the prosecution, the defense, or the permanent judges. Lay judges are similar to magistrates of England and Wales, but magistrates sit about twice as often.

双语例句：

（1）In particular, the lowering of the age of criminal responsibility from 16 to 14 years reduces the possibility for educational measures and exposes many children between 14 and 16 years of age to detention in correctional centres; children over 16 years of age committing serious offences can be sent to criminal courts; the length of pretrial detention has been extended from four to eight weeks; and the new Saiban-in

 system, which is a lay judge system, constitutes an obstacle to the treatment of child 

offenders by a specialized juvenile court.

特别是将刑事责任年龄从16岁降低到14岁，减少了采取教育措施的可能性，并使许多14至16岁岁之间的儿童被改造中心拘留；犯严重罪行的16 岁以上儿童可能被送往刑事法院；审前拘留的时间从四周延长至八周；新的“裁判员”制度（非职业法官制度）成为儿童专门法院处理儿童罪犯的障碍。

（2）Lay judges are appointed by local municipal councils, in practice by negotiations between political parties, from among volunteers. Each municipality elects a number of lay judges depending on its size, with two as the minimum. The minimum qualifications are Finnish citizenship, full citizenship rights (a lay judge may not be a dependent or in bankruptcy), 25–64 years of age when elected. Lay judges must resign at the age of 68 at the latest. Officials of the judicial, law enforcement or corrections authorities, such as prosecutors, attorneys, policemen, distrainers or customs officers, may not be elected as lay judges.

非职业法官由地方市政委员会任命，实际上是通过政党之间的谈判，从志愿人员中任命。每个市政当局根据其规模选出一定数量的非职业法官，最低两名。最低资格是芬兰公民、享有完全的公民权利（非职业法官不得是受抚养人或破产者）、当选时25-64岁。非职业法官最迟必须在68岁时辞职。司法、执法或管教当局的官员，例如检察官、律师、警察、扣押人或海关官员，不得当选为非职业法官。