Due to restrictions put in place in response to the spread of COVID-19, this event has been postponed. We look forward to scheduling similar programming in the future.
Lawyers have techniques to persuade decision-makers about what the law should be, using arguments based on common values, storytelling, and framing to help us see our own values in a new light. These tools of reasoned argument enable us to engage in civil debate about divisive issues and to justify decisions in hard cases. Joseph Singer’s book, Persuasion: Getting to the Other Side, categorizes the arguments that lawyers use in debates about ambiguous or contested legal questions. It also explains how judges justify their decisions about what the law should be when the case involves competing values and there are plausible arguments on both sides. This panel will bring together judges, lawyers and legal scholars to engage in discussion over Singer’s Persuasion, and explore how the tools of persuasion can mitigate polarization in contemporary legal and political discourse.