A Law Professor Asks 1Ls: Is Persuasion Dead?

摘要

Across the country, first-year law students spend the spring semester learning to be advocates. They draft briefs on fictional legal problems to convince hypothetical judges of the Tightness of their arguments. Professors, like me, who shepherd students through the process, often label the spring the "persuasive semester."In 2021, the persuasive semester is feeling futile. Outside my classroom, the past four years have been more a lesson in the art of heel-digging than dialogue. As I've watched Congressmen nearly throw punches on the House floor, citizens defend conspiracy theories, and Twitterati blithely call for "canceling" those who contest a particular orthodoxy, I am left asking: Is persuasion dead?