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Anyone who has sat on a jury or followed a high-profile trial on television usually comes to the realization that a trial, particularly a criminal trial, is really a performance. Verdicts seem determined as much by which lawyer can best connect with the hearts and minds of the jurors as by what the evidence might suggest. In this celebration of the American trial as a great cultural achievement, Robert Burns, a trial lawyer and a trained philosopher, explores how these legal proceedings bring about justice. The trial, he reminds us, is not confined to the impartial application of legal rules to factual findings. Burns depicts the trial as an institution employing its own language and styles of performance that elevate the understanding of decision-makers, bringing them in contact with moral sources beyond the limits of law.


Burns explores the rich narrative structure of the trial, beginning with the lawyers' opening statements, which establish opposing moral frameworks in which to interpret the evidence. In the succession of witnesses, stories compete and are held in tension. At some point during the performance, a sense of the right thing to do arises among the jurors. How this happens is at the core of Burns's investigation, which draws on careful descriptions of what trial lawyers do, the rules governing their actions, interpretations of actual trial material, social science findings, and a broad philosophical and political appreciation of the trial as a unique vehicle of American self-government.

Tabla de contenidos provista por Syndetics

• Acknowledgments(p. ix)
• Introduction(p. 3)
• I. The Received View of the Trial(p. 10)
• II. The Trial's Linguistic Practices(p. 34)
• III. The Trial's Constitutive Rules(p. 73)
• IV. An Interpretation from One Trial(p. 103)
• V. The Trial's Most Basic Features and Some Observed Consequences(p. 124)
• VI. Thinking What We Do(p. 155)
• VII. The Two Sides of the Trial Event(p. 183)
• VIII. The Truth of Verdicts(p. 220)
• Index(p. 245)

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CHOICE Review

Judges or juries are usually described as establishing the facts of some controversy and applying legal rules without making value judgments. Burns, an experienced litigator and professor of law, argues that this view is too narrow. Lawyers, he contends, structure facts within a framework of narrative consciously designed to appeal to values and prejudices. Narratives shape and account for evidence. Trial rules encourage this storytelling, and the stories jurors hear bring them in contact with moral sources--and prejudices--"beyond the limits of law." Jurors accept or reject stories by drawing on commonsense notions of completeness and coherence, then choose between the narratives presented by the lawyers or construct their own. Other scholars have made such arguments. Burns makes an original contribution by drawing on his own experience to show lawyers drafting opening statements and otherwise shaping and dramatizing their courtroom performances. The first half of the book provides a good introduction to the "narrative school" of trial theorists. However, the second half develops a model of verdict construction according to which jurors make decisions on no fewer than eight levels. This model is too complex for all but upper-division undergraduates, graduate students, and faculty. P. Lermack; Bradley University

Notas de autor provistas por Syndetics

Robert P. Burns is Professor of Law at Northwestern University School of Law, where he teaches evidence, legal ethics, and procedure.