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Joshua P. Davis

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2016

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Full-Text Articles in Law

Writing Better Jury Instructions: Antitrust As An Example, Joshua P. Davis, Shannon Wheatman, Cristen Stephansky Mar 2016

Writing Better Jury Instructions: Antitrust As An Example, Joshua P. Davis, Shannon Wheatman, Cristen Stephansky

Joshua P. Davis

Understanding the law is difficult. Getting juries to understand the law is more difficult. Yet we provide evidence that it can be done, even in complex areas such as antitrust. This Article tests whether jury instructions can be written in a way that maintains fidelity to the law—indeed, improves on fidelity to the law compared to standard jury instructions—while also permitting jurors to understand the relevant legal standards. But it goes further than that. It proposes making empirical testing an integral part of drafting model jury instructions. It also shows that such empirical testing is feasible by harnessing the power …