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Jurisprudence and Persuasion: “You Can't Argue Like That” A Case-based Approach
This innovative book offers a case-based approach to arguments about the nature of law and persuasion. Its unifying insight is that every decided case has a theory or philosophy within it – whether acknowledged or not – and that there is professional value in developing the skill to discern, articulate, and analyze it. Offering a flexible platform for either an introduction to law and legal reasoning or an in-depth course in jurisprudence and advocacy, the book works first through decided cases and then offers context and depth through the writings of jurists and philosophers. Major themes in the cultural and intellectual history of the law are made accessible and always with a sense of what practical difference they make.
Part I enables students to use case analysis to connect with some of the traditional and contemporary schools of jurisprudence across the ideological spectrum (e.g., natural law, positivism, legal realism, law and economics, feminist legal theory, and critical race theory). Part II, in a modern riff on what prior generations of lawyers would have called – without irony or deprecation – 'rhetoric,' analyzes certain identifiable and recurring types of legal arguments, including reasoning by default (e.g., fictions, presumptions, and burdens), recurring fallacies (e.g., begging the question, arguments
ad hominem, asserting the consequent), and the nested problems of interpreting statutes and the common law. Understood as the art of argument, it is exactly what lawyers do. Honing it and keeping it respectable is in every law professor’s job description. Part III applies the skills and insights from the rest of the book by applying them in a particular setting, focused on the question whether international law is really 'law' and what turns on that designation.
Illustrative syllabi are available for those considering adoption.
Imprint: West Academic Publishing
Series: American Casebook Series
Publication Date: 07/08/2018
Ralph G. Steinhardt, George Washington University Law School
Benjamin Teich
CasebookPlus™
This title is available in our CasebookPlus format. CasebookPlus provides support beyond your classroom lectures and materials by offering additional digital resources to you and your students. Anchored by faculty-authored formative self-assessments keyed to our most popular casebooks, CasebookPlus allows students to test their understanding of core concepts as they are learning them in class – on their own, outside of the classroom, with no extra work on your part. CasebookPlus combines three important elements:
- A new print or digital casebook
- Access to a downloadable eBook with the ability to highlight and add notes
- 12-month access to a digital Learning Library complete with:
- Chapter questions keyed to the casebook
- Black Letter Law questions (available in select subjects)
- Subject area review questions for end of semester use
Leading digital study aids, an outline starter, and audio lectures in select subjects
Students can still utilize CasebookPlus digital resources if they’ve purchased a used book or are renting their text by purchasing the Learning Library at westacademic.com.
With CasebookPlus, you can customize your students’ learning experience and monitor their performance. The quiz editor allows you to create your own custom quiz set, suppress specific quiz questions or quiz sets, and time-release quiz questions. Additionally, the flexible, customized reporting capability helps you evaluate your students’ understanding of the material and can also help your school demonstrate compliance with the new ABA Assessment and Learning Outcomes standards.
Learn more about this series.
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Law School Faculty: email accountmanager@westacademic.com or call 800-313-9378.
Other Higher Education Faculty: email college@westacademic.com or 800-360-9378.
Access Denied
Higher education faculty who wish to view this document should contact their West Academic Account Manager at college@westacademic.com or 800-360-9378.