“Mistrial”可译为“无效审理”。指错误的、无效的、法律不认可的审理。造成无效审理的原因主要有法院无管辖权，陪审员选择错误，陪审团意见无法一致，不能作出裁断，陪审员或律师在审理中意外死亡，在审理前或审理中无视必要的基本规定，在审理中出现法庭无法纠正的有损当事人利益的错误，审理在正常结束前已终止等。法官在发现无效审理情况，认为无法纠正且继续审理只是浪费时间和财力时，即可宣告审理无效，予以终止。无效审理等于没有审理，与已审结案件与因有充分理由而“再审”不同。

Mistrial, in law, a trial that has been terminated and declared void before the tribunal can hand down a decision or render a verdict. The termination of a trial prematurely nullifies the preceding proceedings as if they had not taken place. Therefore, should another trial on the same charges, with the same defendants, be ordered, that trial would start from the beginning, with the previous testimony or other findings not necessarily relevant in the new court proceedings. 以下为相关例句，以加深对该词含义及用法的理解：

例句1

The jury deadlocked on a fourth count of conspiracy against the woman, Lori Drew, 49, and the judge, George H. Wu of Federal District Court, declared a mistrial on that charge.

现年49岁的被告Lori Drew还被控告第四项罪名：共谋罪，然而陪审团在这项指控上意见相持不下，联邦地区法院的法官George H. Wu宣告这项指控的庭审为无效审理。

例句2

The judge declared a mistrial, saying that Christofferson-Titchbourne’s lawyers had presented prejudicial arguments.

法庭宣布为无效审理，说是因为Christofferson-Titchbourne的律师提出了存有偏见的证据。