Juries don't make legal decisions! And other problems: A critique of Hastie et al. on punitive damages

Hastie, Schkade, and Payne (1998) published a simulation experiment intende d to study the performance of jurors and juries regarding verdicts on wheth er punitive damages should be allowed. They concluded that juries were nor very competent and discussed the legal policy implications of this conclusi on I identify a fatal conceptual flaw that renders the study irrelevant to legal policy: The jurors were asked to decide law a decision that is the re sponsibility of the trial judge, not the jury. I also identify a number of misstatements and unsupported assertions in the article.