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 intended to study the performance of jurors and juries regarding verdicts on whether punitive damages should be allowed. They concluded that juries were nor very competent and discussed the legal policy implications of this conclusion 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 responsibility of the trial judge, not the jury. I also identify a number of misstatements and unsupported assertions in the article.