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Rhetoric Commons

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2013

Legal Analysis and Writing

Articles 1 - 2 of 2

Full-Text Articles in Rhetoric

A Revised View Of The Judicial Hunch, Linda L. Berger Jan 2013

A Revised View Of The Judicial Hunch, Linda L. Berger

Linda L. Berger

Judicial intuition is misunderstood. Labeled as cognitive bias, it is held responsible for stereotypes of character and credibility. Framed as mental shortcut, it is blamed for overconfident and mistaken predictions. Depicted as flashes of insight, it takes credit for unearned wisdom. The true value of judicial intuition falls somewhere in between. When judges are making judgments about people (he looks trustworthy) or the future (she will be the better parent), the critics are correct: intuition based on past experience may close minds. Once a judge recognizes a familiar pattern in a few details, she may fail to see the whole …


Metaphor In Law As Poetic And Propositional Language, Linda L. Berger Dec 2012

Metaphor In Law As Poetic And Propositional Language, Linda L. Berger

Linda L. Berger

My argument in this essay is that although lawyers routinely use and abuse metaphor as propositional language, they mostly neglect the use of metaphor as poetic language. Poetic metaphor openly invites you to view a topic or a target from a new angle by setting it against or alongside a light source; in this way, it prompts second looks and encourages insights. Propositional metaphor, by comparison, appears designed to persuade you to view the target or the topic under discussion as something you already know about because of your experience with the source. As a result, you are better able …