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Unit of Study LAWS2034 - The Rhetoric of Law (2022)

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Unit Snapshot

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Unit description

Explores the discursive conventions of Law, a discipline predicated on powerful narratives and solid rhetorical practices while simultaneously denying that it is anything other than the simple application of known and certain rules. As Wetlaufer notes “Rhetoric offers us a set of tools for thinking about the discursive conventions within which we work”.  Students will have the opportunity to explore Law’s rhetoric and the stories it tells about itself while developing their own rhetorical toolboxes, drawing upon classical traditions from Plato, Quintillian and Socrates to the new rhetoric identified by Chaim Perelman

Unit content

  1. Law as Rhetoric and its denial of its own rhetoric
  2. Discipline specific discursive conventions
  3. Law’s discursive conventions
  4. Law as syllogism
  5. The three appeals – pathos, ethos and logos
  6. The role of narrative and analogy in law
  7. Unpacking the Rhetorician’s toolbox – from Alliteration to Synedoche
  8. Tools and techniques for analysing and critiquing discursive conventions

Availabilities

Not currently available in 2022

Learning outcomes

Unit Learning Outcomes express learning achievement in terms of what a student should know, understand and be able to do on completion of a unit. These outcomes are aligned with the graduate attributes. The unit learning outcomes and graduate attributes are also the basis of evaluating prior learning.

On completion of this unit, students should be able to:

Demonstrate an understanding of the relevance of rhetoric to Law and the ways in which Law is a practice of rhetoric

Identify the use of rhetorical tools and devices used within Law’s texts and artefacts which speak of and about Law

Utilise rhetorical devices to present powerful and compelling arguments, positions and stories

Critically analyse Law’s texts and artefacts using classic and new rhetorical lenses