Introductory description

To develop competence in the practical, performative and ethical arts of appellate court advocacy and forensic (i.e. ‘court room’) rhetoric

Module web page

Module aims

Outline syllabus

This is an indicative module outline only to give an indication of the sort of topics that may be covered. Actual sessions held may differ.

A demonstration moot will be performed within the first three
weeks of term, with a staff member acting as judge
Origins of mooting and rhetorical controversies
The example of celebrated rhetoricians and advocates of the
past
Nature of mooting in modern educational contexts
Forensic rhetoric - on invention, arrangement, memory,
delivery and style
Judging a moot
The conversational ideal and the function of formality
On judicial style
Practice in "fair hearing"
Logos/Logic I - on binding authority
Logos/Logic II - on persuasive authority
Rhetorical ethos and the limits of logos / logic
Appreciating the difference between a logical audit and an
ethical audit of the outcomes of judicial statements, focusing
on particular cases e.g. Re A (Separation of Conjoined Twins)
Metaphor as logical method
Gesture, costume and staging of forensic performance

Learning outcomes

By the end of the module, students should be able to:

• Perform with technical competence, imagination and professionalism in methods of mooting and the arts of appellate court advocacy.
• Demonstrate sophisticated practical awareness of the ethical aspects of the roles and responsibilities of courtroom advocates and judges.
• Show critical familiarity with classical, renaissance and modern theories and techniques of forensic rhetoric and the ability to take the initiative in implementing such insights in practice.
• Work well as part of a team in the production of a project outcome in the form of a moot trial and to communicate complex ideas clearly in the context of group work.
• Evidence a developing reflective appreciation of personal competence in the art of advocacy and the ability to manage his or her own learning and to devise a sustainable scheme of term-long task management.

Indicative reading list

John Snape and Gary Watt, How to Moot: A Student Guide to
Mooting 2nd edn (OUP, 2010)
Iain Morley QC, The Devil's Advocate 3rd edn (Sweet &
Maxwell, 2015)
Adrian Whitfield QC, The Art of Persuasion: Tradition and
Technique (Middle Temple, 2015)
Richard Du Cann, The Art of the Advocate (Penguin Law, 1993)
Sam Leith, You Talkin' To Me?: Rhetoric from Aristotle to
Obama (Profile Books, 2012)
Aristotle, The Art of Rhetoric
Thomas Wilson, Arte of Rhetorique (1560)
Quentin Skinner, Forensic Shakespeare (OUP, 2014)
Robert and Susan Cockcroft et al, Persuading People: An
Introduction to Rhetoric 3rd edn (Palgrave, 2014)
Wayne C Booth, The Rhetoric of Rhetoric, 2004
Gleeson and Higgins (eds), Rediscovering Rhetoric: Law, Language, and the Practice of Persuasion (Federation Press, 2008)
James Boyd White, The Legal Imagination (Boston: Little, Brown, 1973)

Subject specific skills

No subject specific skills defined for this module.

Transferable skills

No transferable skills defined for this module.