Legal Argument: The Structure and Language of Effective Advocacy - Softcover

Gardner, James

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1422418200 ISBN 13: 9781422418208

Publisher: Carolina Academic Press, 2007

Synopsis

Legal Argument: The Structure and Language of Effective Advocacy is a full-featured guide designed primarily for law students in research, writing, analysis and trial advocacy classes and moot court programs. Inside you'll find detailed explanations of how lawyers construct legal arguments and practical guidelines to the process of molding the raw materials of litigation―cases, statutes, testimony, documents, common sense―into instruments of persuasive advocacy. You'll also find writing guidelines that show you how to present a well-constructed legal argument in writing in a way that legal decision makers will find persuasive. The centerpiece of this indispensable work is its syllogism-based step-by-step method, designed to walk the advocate through the process of crafting a winning argument. Intuitive organization presents the material in five parts:

• Part I sets out a general methodology for constructing legal arguments.
• Part II focuses more closely on the construction of persuasive, well-grounded legal premises, and covers the effective integration of legal doctrine and evidence into the argument's structure.
• Part III shows how to put the method to work by giving two detailed examples of the construction of complete legal arguments from scratch.
• Part IV provides a detailed protocol for reducing well-constructed legal arguments to written form, along with a concrete illustration of that process. It also provides concrete advice on how to recognize and avoid a host of common mistakes in the written presentation of legal arguments.
• Part V moves from the basics into more advanced techniques of persuasive legal argument, including rhetorical tactics like framing and emphasis, how to respond to arguments, maintaining professionalism in advocacy, and the ethical limits of argument.

About this title

About the Author

James Gardner is the Bridget and Thomas Black SUNY Distinguished Professor of Law Emeritus and Research Professor of Political Science Emeritus at the University at Buffalo School of Law.

Edition details

• Publisher: Carolina Academic Press
• Publication date: 2007
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1422418200
• ISBN 13: 9781422418208
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 2
• Number of pages: 192