Preface

• Pages: 9-11

ix

PREFACE

These instructions owe much to the Committee that gave us the 1984

Sample Jury Instructions in Criminal Antitrust Cases. Their careful and

complete treatment of complex areas of criminal antitrust law and the

attention to detail has allowed antitrust practitioners and courts across the

country to rely on that handbook for over twenty years. The 2008 Model

Jury Instructions Committee, led by Jim Mutchnik, began its work by

opening the 1984 Sample Jury Instructions text, and pledging to modify

only what was necessary. To the credit of both committees, many of the

jury instructions that appear in this book remain unchanged or only

slightly modified to reflect the changes in antitrust practice since 1984.

On behalf of the Section of Antitrust Law, we thank the 1984

Committee. We hope that the next Committee appreciates our work as

much as we have appreciated yours.

These instructions are presented in concise and readily

understandable language. Rather than present them in alphabetical order,

as in the 1984 Sample Jury Instructions, the drafters have organized them

in the order in which a court presiding over a criminal antitrust jury trial

would likely give them. Thus, this book includes both general and

antitrust-specific instructions, including ones to be recited at the outset of

the criminal case, some instructions that are appropriate just prior to the

admission of the evidence, and others for the close of the case. But, in

any criminal antitrust case, counsel must compare and/or supplement

these model instructions with those adopted or preferred by the circuit

and district courts in which the case will be tried, and also tailor the

instructions to the facts in issue. To that end, the model instructions

from the various circuits that have them are referenced wherever

appropriate. The Model Jury Instructions Committee has included notes

where appropriate to explain the reasoning in adopting the particular

formulation of the model instruction. The notes explain areas of fair

difference of opinion among the Committee members and offer, in

limited circumstances, alternative formulations of the recommended jury

instruction. A number of instructions contain charges enclosed in

brackets that may or may not be used in the particular criminal case

depending on the facts and circumstances.