Communication & Law

The Ego has Landed: Stephen Colbert, Irony and Enthymeme at the White House Correspondents' Dinner

Despite consisting of primarily jokes Stephen Colbert had already used on his television program, The Colbert Report, Colbert's speech at the 2006 WHCA Dinner left audience members shocked and uncomfortable.

Private Persuasion, Public Denial: Politics, Torture and the Interpretation of Law

In this paper I examine legal and political language surrounding the Abu Ghraib prison scandal.

Massachusetts v. Environmental Protection Agency: The unCONVENTIONal Rhetoric of Environmental unCERTAINTY

Massachusetts V. Environmental Protection Agency is unique among US Supreme Court opinions.

Causation, Negligence, Credibility, and Presentation Influence: Testing for the Camera Perspective Bias in the Civil Trial Context

The following article reports the results of two experimental studies designed to test for a camera perspective bias in the civil legal arena.

Scott Panetti, The Legal Characterizations of Rights of the Mentally Ill, and the U.S. Supreme Court's Involvement in Public Debates About the Abolition of Capital Punishment

This essay provides a rhetorical analysis of the recent United States Supreme Court case of Panetti v. Quarterman (2007).