AMST 3822 Chapter 6: AMST Mertz chapter 6
Document Summary
As a legal reading tightens students gaze on certain specific facts of each case, it focuses their attention on certain people, and on particular aspects of those people and their lives. Only certain facts are relevant to reading, if students fail to grasp this they will not be able to write legal briefs, read legal opinions, or successfully shape legal arguments in court. Problem is that as students are drawn into new discursive practice they are drawn away from the norms and conventions that many members of our society use to solve conflicts and dilemmas. 3 kinds of influence that the norms surrounding legal readings exert on the conceptualization of legal personae. A core trope organizing legal readings is that of argument particularly where case law genre is concerned. When they write legal texts or opinions, judges are deciding which of two competing sides and arguments has won, and in doing so are presenting arguments of their own.
