Rhetorical Traditions and Contemporary Law

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.

• 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.