Classical Rhetoric, Legal Argumentation and the Semiotics of Law

Könczöl, Miklós (2023) Classical Rhetoric, Legal Argumentation and the Semiotics of Law. In: Research Handbook on Legal Semiotics. Research Handbooks in Legal Theory . Edward Elgar Publishing Limited, Cheltenham; Northampton (MA), pp. 146-157. ISBN 978-1-80220-725-5; 978-1-80220-726-2

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Abstract

In this chapter, we shall look at the technical sources of persuasion from the perspective of semiotics, taking Aristotle’s text as the starting point, with occasional references to later rhetoric. The theoretical framework will be that of B. S. Jackson, and especially his insights concerning the ‘narrativisation of pragmatics’, as laid out in his work on Law, Fact and Narrative Coherence. Linking Aristotelian rhetoric to the semiotics of law seems to be warranted for two reasons. On the one hand, the use of signs in rhetorical persuasion seems to be aimed at the coherence of argument rather than any kind of external correspondence. On the other hand, this coherence of argument is established in and through a number of narratives, explicit or implicit, and classical textbooks of rhetoric contribute to our understanding of how these work.

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