Rhetorical Processes and Legal Judgments
Rhetorical Processes and Legal Judgments
Over the last several decades legal scholars have plumbed law's rhetorical life. Scholars have done so under various rubrics, with law and literature being among the most fruitful venues for the exploration of law's rhetoric and the way rhetoric shapes law. Today, new approaches are shaping this exploration. Among the most important of these approaches is the turn toward history and toward what might be called an 'embedded' analysis of rhetoric in law. Historical and embedded approaches locate that analysis in particular contexts, seeking to draw our attention to how the rhetorical dimensions of legal life works in those contexts. Rhetorical Processes and Legal Judgments seeks to advance that mode of analysis and also to contribute to the understanding of the rhetorical structure of judicial arguments and opinions.
- By offering new perspectives on rhetoric in law the book will appeal to scholars already well-versed in the subject
- Updates existing scholarship by discussing timely issues which will be of interest to law scholars and researchers
- By showing the significance of rhetoric in law, the book covers important and relevant themes
Reviews & endorsements
‘… this volume brings together strong essays upon a broad range of topics … Despite being focused primarily upon U.S. law and society, these essays will be of note for anyone concerned with arguing for civil rights, and more broadly, with the development of law.' James Campbell, SCOLAG Legal Journal
Product details
November 2017Paperback
9781316609026
157 pages
150 × 230 × 9 mm
0.25kg
Available
Table of Contents
- The relevance of rhetoric: an introduction Austin Sarat
- 1. From 'equality before the law' to 'separate but equal': legal rhetoric, legal history and Roberts v. Boston (1849) Eric Slauter
- 2. The civlizing hand of law: defending the legal process in the civil rights era Christopher W. Schmidt
- 3. The evolving rhetoric of gay rights and same-sex marriage debate Teresa Godwin Phelps
- 4. The rhetoric of precedent Bernadette Meyler
- 5. Alternative perspectives on legal rhetoric: persuasion, invitation and argument Linda L. Berger
- Afterword. Use your words: rhetoric as absence of law, rhetoric as essence of law Adam Steinman.
