Law Commons^™

Shakespeare In The Courts, Douglas E. Abrams

Faculty Publications

This article continues the theme of recent “Writing It Right” articles in the Journal of the Missouri Bar. These articles describe how federal and state judges today frequently accent their opinions’ substantive or procedural rulings with references to cultural markers that can resonate with the advocates, parties, and judges who comprise the opinions’ readership. The courts’ broad array of cultural references demonstrates versatility. Some of my early articles in the Journal profiled judicial opinions that referenced terminologies, rules, and traditions of baseball, football, and other sports. Together these sports’ mass audiences help define American culture.

Later my Journal articles profiled …

Exploring Precedent, Mary Whisner

Librarians' Articles

Ms. Whisner looks at the concept of precedent in the case law arena and discusses how to handle cases from parallel and lower courts, including unpublished decisions. She offers tips to help make decisions when using precedent, including consulting secondary sources and key numbers.

Rhetoric, Advocacy And Ethics: Reflections On Shakespeare's Julius Caesar, Stephen A. Newman

Articles & Chapters

The rhetorical skill necessary to speaking and writing persuasively may be studied with great profit by exploring realms of knowledge far from the courtroom and the law office. Literature naturally comes to mind as a rich resource for the study of persuasion. For this essay, I have chosen a well-known set of speeches that appear in William Shakespeare's Julius Caesar to illustrate various aspects of persuasion.

In the play's most riveting scene, Marcus Brutus and Mark Antony speak before a crowd of Romans, giving their opposing views of the assassination of Caesar. Brutus claims justification for his and his co-conspirators' …

The Bard And The Bench: An Opinion And Brief Writer's Guide To Shakespeare, Robert Peterson

Faculty Publications

This work is a legal brief writer's and opinion drafter's guide to Shakespeare. It collects and catalogues by topic citations to plays, poems, or passages that are actually found in judicial opinions. This essay also suggests a few uncited orphans deserving a home in brief or opinion. The catalogue is web based; the reader may search it in its electronic format or download it for old-fashioned browsing.