Overview
This course on the rhetorical dimensions of legal interpretation and writing will examine both the theory and practice of court rhetoric as they developed in the Greco-Roman world and the implications of that development for contemporary legal rhetoric.
The course will be divided into three sections. The first, “Classical Rhetorical Backgrounds” will model a neo-Aristotelian approach to analyzing and producing rhetorical texts as students read from classical rhetoric and write declamations of their own; “Historical Legal Documents” will introduce a rhetorical approach to historiography as students analyze historically significant documents while employing new historical, social-constructivist, and/or poststructrualist lenses to interpret those documents; and “Contemporary Reflections on Law and Language” will introduce students to theoretical and experimental writings about the law that employ a critical methodology.
Assignments
Participants will have the opportunity to test their skills as rhetoricians before a group of knowledgeable peers. This will take the form of the performance of short declamation on an ancient theme. There will also be a major writing project, which will take the form of a rhetorical analysis of a legal document (such as legal memoranda, courts proceedings, briefs or historical documents such as proclamations and acts). In addition, the class will have a practical component that will demand active involvement in the critique of contemporary legal rhetoric, as students will write a critique of a local courtroom performance.
Required Texts
Course readings will be made available via pdf.