Abstract
Judges summing up to juries in criminal cases must deliver directions on a wide range of issues, substantive and evidential. The Crown Court Bench Book, issued by the Judicial Studies Board, publishes specimen directions, designed to ensure that juries are correctly directed on the legal rules that they must apply to the facts. Judges were never meant to follow these directions ‘mechanistically’. Several decisions of the Court of Appeal would suggest otherwise. This article offers a critique of two recent decisions, involving good character directions, where the Court of Appeal has again enforced strict adherence, and argues for a greater degree of judicial autonomy.
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