(Source: Palgrave)
ABOUT THE BOOK
This book maps the changes in court advocacy in
England and Wales over the last three centuries. Advocacy, the means by which a
barrister puts their client’s case to the court and jury, has grown piecemeal
and at an uneven pace; the result of a complex interplay of many influences.
Andrew Watson examines the numerous principal factors, from the effect on
juniors of successful styles deployed by senior advocates, changes in court
procedure, reforms in laws determining who and what may be put before courts,
the amount of media reporting of court cases, and public and press opinion
about the acceptable limits of advocates’ tactics and oratory. This book also
explores the extent to which juries are used in trials and the social origins
of those serving on them. It goes on to examine the formal teaching of advocacy
which was only introduced comparatively recently, arguing that this, and new
technology, will likely exert a strong influence on future forensic oratory.
Speaking in Court provides a readable history
of advocacy and the many factors that have shaped it, and takes a far wider
view of the history of advocacy than many titles, analysing the 20th Century
developments which are often overlooked. This book will be of interest to
general readers, law practitioners interested in how advocacy has developed in
courts of yesteryear, teachers of advocacy who want to locate there subject in
history and impart this to their students, and to law students curious about
the origins of what they are learning.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Andrew Watson is Lecturer at Sheffield Hallam University,
UK. Before then he practiced as a solicitor and as a barrister during which
time he acted as an advocate and appeared at all levels of courts. He was also
a visiting lecturer on Advocacy Training Workshops at Harvard Law School from
1998-2003 and was an Assistant Professor at Niigata University in Japan from
1993-1995.
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