Exemplum Habemus: Reflections on the Judicial Studies Board's Specimen Directions

Abstract

This article examines the increasingly prominent role specimen directions published by the Judicial Studies Board, and even some of the Board's teaching materials, now play in criminal cases. The specimen directions are virtually ignored in the academic literature, yet are symptomatic of those mildly dysfunctional systems that operate with autonomous juries. Evidence abounds that when summing up trial judges lean heavily upon these sometimes flawed materials, that appellate courts make extensive reference to them in their judgments, and that counsel's arguments are often directly shaped by them. Additionally, there is a significant dialogue being conducted between appellate courts and the Board. This article points up the extent to which the specimen directions have come to mediate UK criminal law and criminal evidence.