This book traces the metavalues of truth and justice as developed in English trial advocacy treatises from 1600 to the late nineteenth century. Key questions addressed include: When lawyers historically have given written guidance to other lawyers about the most effective ways of advocating in court, what do they emphasize? How have advocacy texts incorporated society’s concerns about truth and justice into their advice? Has there been a shift in the balance between discussions of truth and justice and the best techniques for winning cases? Advocacy-advice texts have traditionally intended to ... More

This book traces the metavalues of truth and justice as developed in English trial advocacy treatises from 1600 to the late nineteenth century. Key questions addressed include: When lawyers historically have given written guidance to other lawyers about the most effective ways of advocating in court, what do they emphasize? How have advocacy texts incorporated society’s concerns about truth and justice into their advice? Has there been a shift in the balance between discussions of truth and justice and the best techniques for winning cases? Advocacy-advice texts have traditionally intended to help lawyers be as effective as possible in trial advocacy. Unlike training manuals in other professional domains, advocacy manuals address a realm of activity where society has an interest in the truth being discovered and justice being done. To what extent, then, have ideas about truth and justice been incorporated into discussions about winning tactics and techniques? The book takes the reader through a discursive history of the relation between technique and metavalues as presented in advocacy advice—beginning with a thematic analysis of the first texts published in the Anglo-American tradition in the early seventeenth century through treatises written during seasons of radical change in the profession in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, and up to the present day with a brief look at the more than 200 trial manuals currently in print. This diachronic study reveals dramatic changes in the place authors have given truth and justice in their advice for effective advocacy.