What are ‘case uses’ and how do I read box plots?

I posted a new article on SSRN this week that presents the big-picture findings of an empirical study I’ve been doing of the argumentative practices of judges and advocates in 199 textual artifacts. (Page numbers here are for the version posted on SSRN on Feb. 18, 2020.) I’ve done the analysis (with the help of a dozen research assistants) over the last two years, and the findings raise some interesting questions. But before we can really talk about the findings, you need to know what it is we were looking for, the ‘case use.’ And because I presented many of Read More …

‘Irreparable harm’ and legal arguments by analogy and example

I’m excited! My proposal for the 8th ISSA Conference on Argumentation in Amsterdam in July 2014 has been accepted. Of course, I still have plenty of work to do to get ready! Here’s my abstract: This paper presents the results of a pilot empirical study of written legal arguments and oral reports of authors’ cognition to explore the following research questions: Do American lawyers perceive differences between arguments by analogy and arguments by example, and if so, how are those differences represented in their argumentative writing? Scott Brewer (1996), Lloyd Wienreb (2005; 2007), and Richard Posner (2006) engaged in a Read More …