scholarly journals Oral Argument in the Time of COVID: The Chief Plays Calvinball

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tonja Jacobi ◽  
Timothy R. Johnson ◽  
Eve Ringsmuth ◽  
Matthew Sag
Keyword(s):  
Oral Argument

scholarly journals Observing Supreme Court Oral Argument: A Biosocial Approach

1992 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 35-52 ◽  
Author(s):  
James N. Schubert ◽  
Steven A. Peterson ◽  
Glendon Schubert ◽  
Stephen Wasby
Keyword(s):  
Content Analysis ◽  
Supreme Court ◽  
Language Use ◽  
Voice Quality ◽  
Systematic Observation ◽  
Face To Face ◽  
Political Interaction ◽  
Oral Argument ◽  
Level Of Analysis ◽  
The U.S

Supreme Court oral argument (OA) is one of many face-to-face settings of political interaction. This article describes a methodology for the systematic observation and measurement of behavior in OA developed in a study of over 300 randomly selected cases from the 1969-1981 terms of the U.S. Supreme Court. Five sources of observation are integrated into the OA database at the speaking turn level of analysis: the actual text of verbal behavior; categorical behavior codes; aspects of language use and speech behavior events; electro-acoustical measurement of voice quality; and content analysis of subject matter. Preliminary data are presented to illustrate the methodology and its application to theoretical concerns of the research project.

Judicial Demeanor: Oral Argument in the High Court of Australia

2018 ◽  
Vol 39 (3) ◽  
pp. 273-299 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jordan Tutton ◽  
Kathy Mack ◽  
Sharyn Roach Anleu
Keyword(s):  
High Court ◽  
Oral Argument ◽  
High Court Of Australia

Voting Fluidity and Oral Argument on the U.S. Supreme Court

2012 ◽  
Vol 66 (2) ◽  
pp. 429-440 ◽  
Author(s):  
Eve M. Ringsmuth ◽  
Amanda C. Bryan ◽  
Timothy R. Johnson
Keyword(s):  
Supreme Court ◽  
Oral Argument ◽  
The U.S

Lawyers' use of humor as persuasion

2007 ◽  
Vol 20 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Pamela Hobbs
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Supreme Court ◽  
Legal System ◽  
United States Supreme Court ◽  
The United States ◽  
United States Supreme ◽  
Oral Argument ◽  
Linguistic Skills ◽  
Court Mandated ◽  
American Legal System

AbstractLegal humor is a topic of perennial appeal, and has long been a prolific source of books, articles, and scholarly commentaries which are avidly consumed by popular and professional audiences alike. However, although a number of scholars have analyzed the use of humor in judicial opinions, there is no comparable body of scholarly examinations of lawyers' use of humor in their role as legal advocates. This omission is significant, because in the American legal system, humor and wordplay serve as highly-valued evidence of forensic skill which is deemed appropriate for display both within and outside of the courtroom. Accordingly, this paper attempts to fill the gap in the existing literature by examining attorneys' use of humor as persuasive advocacy in two widely divergent settings, informal court-mandated mediation and oral argument before the United States Supreme Court. In these data, the attorneys use humor aggressively to ridicule the plaintiffs' claims, depicting them as laughable and unworthy of serious consideration, while placing themselves at the center of a comic performance which allows them to display their linguistic skills. These data thus demonstrate that humor can be a potent weapon in an attorney's arsenal.

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