This volume explores the often-overlooked relationship between law and rhetoric. Twelve case studies examine a diverse range of legal texts and rhetorical traditions from ancient times to the present. The volume demonstrates the value of rhetoric in understanding and addressing some of today's most pressing legal and social challenges.
Rhetorical Traditions and Contemporary Law is a collection of twelve case studies that explore the often-overlooked intersections of law and rhetoric. Drawing from rhetorical traditions of the past and present, the multidisciplinary roster of contributors analyzes contemporary legal theory and practice, from judicial opinions to legal scholarship, using significant texts or concepts in a rhetorical tradition. Their essays demonstrate how legal texts function and to what end, while also considering how they might have worked differently. The volume sheds light on the usefulness of rhetoric in addressing some of today's most pressing legal and social challenges. This title is also available as Open Access on Cambridge Core.
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This volume uses significant texts in rhetoric to interpret contemporary legal texts, expanding the conversation between law and rhetoric.
Part I. Introduction:
1. Rhetoric and law Elizabeth C. ('Beth') Britt
and Brian N. Larson; Part II. Key Rhetorical Concepts Animating Contemporary
American Law:
2. The ethos of originalism Mark A. Hannah and Francis J. Mootz
III;
3. The role of tradition in classical and contemporary argument
Vasileios Adamidis and Laura Webb;
4. Practical reason in peril Brian N.
Larson; Part III. Façade of Neutrality:
5. Deciphering Dobbs Susan Tanner;
6.
Eradicating ethos Jennifer Andrus; Part IV. Permeable Boundaries:
7.
Searching for legal topoi in the shadow docket M. Kelly Carr;
8. Sensus
communis, voter-inflicted harms, and Schuette v. BAMN Laura J. Collins;
9.
(Vernacular) rhetorics for women's rights Rasha Diab;
10. to stop-and-frisk,
a pattern for persuasion Lindsay Head; Part V. Law's Power to Exclude Voices:
11. Framing the war on drugs Erin Leigh Frymire;
12. Ensnared by Custom Judy
M. Cornett;
13. Dissoi logoi, rhetorical listening, and legal education
Elizabeth C. Britt; Part VI. Looking Outward and Forward:
14. An
unconventional call for proposals Brian N. Larson and Elizabeth (Beth) C.
Britt; Index.
Brian N. Larson is a Research Fellow and Arts and Humanities Fellow and was formerly Associate Professor of Law at Texas A & M University School of Law. He co-edited Classical Rhetoric & Contemporary Law (2024) and has published numerous book chapters and articles on legal theory, law and rhetoric, and data use and information privacy. Elizabeth C. Britt is Professor of English at Northeastern University. She is the author of Reimagining Advocacy: Rhetorical Education in the Legal Clinic (2018) and Conceiving Normalcy: Rhetoric, Law, and the Double Binds of Infertility (2001), as well as numerous articles and book chapters.
