Legal Argumentation: Reasoning & Writing About the Law

Legal Argumentation: Reasoning & Writing About the Law is suitable for a two- or three-semester introduction to legal analysis, reasoning, research, and writing. It covers theories underlying legal reasoning and analysis, contexts in which reasoning and analysis occur, and many common textual and oral genres, such as memos, briefs, letters, emails, contracts, and oral communication. The book’s appendices provide extensive supplemental information and examples, including writing resources, sample student work, and annotated documents.

The text works in non-linear fashion, with the legal writing professor or program constructing their own path through the material. For example, one professor might start with Chapter 2 (What is law?), Chapter 17 (Sources of American law), and Chapter 16 (Humans in the legal context) to provide orienting material for students without background in the law. Others might jump straight into Chapter 4 (Stating the questions(s)), Chapter 5 (Rule-based reasoning), and Chapter 14 (Writing a simple analysis) to get students writing legal analyses in their first week. Professors may use this flexible text as the primary textbook for a course or sample chapters of it—at no additional cost to students—to supplement another textbook.

Managing Editor:
Brian N. Larson

Editors:
Krista Bordatto
John Cook
Beverly Caro Duréus
Joshua Aaron Jones
Jessica A. Mahon Scoles
Elizabeth Sherowski
Susan Tanner
Stephanie Rae Williams

238,000 words pp. i–xvi, 1–533

Published May 2025