The constitutional change rewording the "seriousness" criterion to "triviality" will not affect the open honor trial to be held this Sunday.
According to Honor Committee Chair David Hobbs, the constitutional change will only affect trials reported after the change was approved by the student body.
Hobbs also noted that the recent by-law change concerning the order in which counsels will speak will be in effect at this trial. This is because when the Committee voted on the change, they also voted to have it take effect immediately, Hobbs said.
The counsel for the community may request to have the final word during closing arguments, provided the counsel for the accused has the same amount of time to speak beforehand.
"I see frequently in trials counsel do their best to muddy the waters," Commerce School Rep. Matt Miller said at the meeting where the change was discussed. "Counsel for accused can make emotional appeal."
Cases conducted this weekend using the new system went smoothly, according to Law School Rep. Randall Warden.
"In a trial on Saturday we used that and it worked out perfectly -- everyone coordinated beforehand and it worked out just fine," Warden said.
Not all experiences with the by-law change were positive, according to Engineering School Rep. Allison Tramba.
At the beginning of closing arguments the counsel for the community must request to save a portion of his or her time for rebuttal, which did not occur at the trial chaired by Tramba.
"Counsel had problems with [the change] overriding the by-laws and we didn't use it," Tramba said of the trial she chaired.
This change in speaker order is the only change that will be in effect for Saturday's scheduled open Honor trial; however, the student retains his or her right to decide on a closed trial up until the trial begins, Vice Chair for Trials Stewart Ackerly said.
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