Assignments & Notices:
During the first two days of the seminar, we will be focusing on these articles:*Jack Balkin, A Night in the Topics, available here: http://www.yale.edu/lawweb/jbalkin/articles/topics1.htm
*Jack L. Sammons, The Radical Ethics of Legal Rhetoricians, 32 Val. U. L. Rev. 93 (1997).
*Jerry Frug, Argument as Character, 40 Stan. L. Rev. 869 (1988).
*Julius Getman, Voices, 66 Tex. L. Rev. 577 (1988).
*Kathryn M. Stanchi, Resistance Is Futile: How Legal Writing Pedagogy Contributes to the Marginalization of Outsider Voices, 103 Dick. L. Rev. 7 (1998).
*Peter Brooks, Narrative Transactions: Does the Law Need a Narratology?, 18 Yale J. L. and Human. 1 (2005).
* James R. Elkins on Legal Writing Pedagogy, available here: http://myweb.wvnet.edu/~jelkins/writeshop/writeshop/legal_writ_teach.html
*Theresa Godwin Phelps, The New Legal Rhetoric, 40 Southwestern L. J. 1089 (1986).
*Richard Posner, Legal Writing Today, 8 Scribes J. Leg. Writing 35 (2001). Some of these writings are very easy reads, but others are not. You don't have to understand every piece of each one, but do try to understand enough to identify what you don't understand. Come to the first meeting prepared to talk about the following questions: 1. What is "rhetoric"?
2. Are legal argument and rhetoric the same thing? Why or why not?
3. Are you conversant in more than one form of rhetoric? If so, what are they, and what are the differences in the way you communicate in those different "rhetorics"?
4. Is it possible to identify a particular "voice" of the law? What if anything have you noticed about the way lawyers seem to communicate nowadays, from your readings and writings in law school? Could you make a list of some of the characteristics of modern legal rhetoric as you have become familiar with it?
5. How does a form of rhetoric change over time? For instance, you have probably noticed that the style of communication in older judicial opinions in United States courts is different from the style in more modern opinions. How and why do you think those changes happened?
6. When you came to law school, did you feel prepared to write and talk about the law, to make legal arguments? When you started making arguments (in writing or orally), was there anything surprising or difficult about it?
7. Is there a place for individual "voice" in legal argument?
Why or why not? My goal for the first week is to help us find common vocabulary and understandings for the rest of the seminar. But there are a lot of different directions that we could go after the first week, and I want to help you get what you want out of the seminar. So on the first day, come prepared to talk about your own goals for the course. I am really excited to teach this seminar. I look forward to meeting and learning with you this summer. See you soon. Jessica Slavin |
