A Theory of the Trial (eBook)

Robert P. Burns (Autor)

eBook Download: PDF | EPUB

2001
Princeton University Press (Verlag)
978-1-4008-2337-6 (ISBN)

Infos

BurnsRobert P.:

Robert P. Burns is Professor of Law at Northwestern University School of Law, where he teaches evidence, legal ethics, and procedure. He has practiced law for twenty-five years and has published widely in law journals and reviews.

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Anyone who has sat on a jury or followed a high-profile trial on television usually comes to the realization that a trial, particularly a criminal trial, is really a performance. Verdicts seem determined as much by which lawyer can best connect with the hearts and minds of the jurors as by what the evidence might suggest. In this celebration of the American trial as a great cultural achievement, Robert Burns, a trial lawyer and a trained philosopher, explores how these legal proceedings bring about justice. The trial, he reminds us, is not confined to the impartial application of legal rules to factual findings. Burns depicts the trial as an institution employing its own language and styles of performance that elevate the understanding of decision-makers, bringing them in contact with moral sources beyond the limits of law. Burns explores the rich narrative structure of the trial, beginning with the lawyers' opening statements, which establish opposing moral frameworks in which to interpret the evidence. In the succession of witnesses, stories compete and are held in tension. At some point during the performance, a sense of the right thing to do arises among the jurors. How this happens is at the core of Burns's investigation, which draws on careful descriptions of what trial lawyers do, the rules governing their actions, interpretations of actual trial material, social science findings, and a broad philosophical and political appreciation of the trial as a unique vehicle of American self-government.

Produkt-Details

• Erscheint lt. Verlag: 1.1.2002
• Zusatzinfo: 2 line illus.
• Verlagsort: Princeton
• Sprache: englisch
• Themenwelt: Geschichte ► Teilgebiete der Geschichte ► Militärgeschichte
• Themenwelt: Geisteswissenschaften ► Philosophie ► Allgemeines / Lexika
• Themenwelt: Geisteswissenschaften ► Philosophie ► Ethik
• Themenwelt: Recht / Steuern ► Allgemeines / Lexika
• Themenwelt: Recht / Steuern ► EU / Internationales Recht
• Themenwelt: Recht / Steuern ► Rechtsgeschichte
• Themenwelt: Recht / Steuern ► Strafrecht
• Schlagworte: acquittal • Acting (law) • Adjudication • Allegation • appellate court • A Theory of Justice • attempt • Bench trial • Bicameralism (psychology) • Case study • Categorization • Cause of action • character evidence • Class action • Columbia Law Review • Common Law • Concept • Consideration • Coping (psychology) • counsel • Criminal Law • Critical Legal Studies • Decision-Making • defendant • Defense (legal) • Determination • Direct examination • Discharge (sentence) • Discovery (law) • Dispute Resolution • distributive justice • district attorney • Epistemology • Evidence (Law) • Experiment • Explanation • Federal Rules of Evidence • forensic rhetoric • Hannah Arendt • hierarchy of values • Historiography • Holism • Implicit invocation • indictment • inference • injunction • Judicial interpretation • Jury • jury instructions • jury trial • lawyer • Legal Doctrine • Legal Positivism • legal process • mandatory sentencing • Manifesto • Morality • narrative • Narrative Ethics • narrativity • National Institute for Trial Advocacy • Opening Statement • Persuasion • Philosophical investigations • Philosophy of Law • plaintiff • plea • Political Philosophy • Political statement • Precedent • Preliminary hearing • presumption • Prosecutor • questionnaire • Question of law • reason • Received view • Requirement • Research Program • rhetoric • Rule of inference • Rule of Law • self-evidence • show trial • State of affairs (philosophy) • Storytelling • Summary judgment • Suspect • The Juror • theory • The Various • Thought • tort reform • trial advocacy • trial court • Tribunal • University of California Press • Utilitarianism • Vocation • witness statement
• ISBN-10: 1-4008-2337-4 / 1400823374
• ISBN-13: 978-1-4008-2337-6 / 9781400823376