- Jan 2014
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blogs.law.harvard.edu blogs.law.harvard.edu
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the parties, the procedural posture, the facts, the issue , the h olding, and the analysis.
Parts of a judicial opinion identified in a student brief:
- parties
- procedural posture
- facts
- issues
- holding
- analysis
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When a law student briefs a case, he typically identifies several pieces of information: the parties, the procedural posture, the facts, the issue , the h olding, and the analysis. Although it seems foreign at first, identifying this information, understanding judicial opinions , and applying their reasoning to new cases becomes much easier with practice.
The legal brief described here is a student brief, not to be confused with an appellate brief; the distinction is described in more detail in How To Brief a Case.
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the judge will state the legal issue(s) involved, her decision about the issue s (the holding) , and her reasoning.
the holding is a part of a judicial opinion that states the decision about the legal issues involved in a case.
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H o w t o R e a d O p i n i o n s
This section on how to read judicial opinions helpfully describes the components of what an opinion contains and some discussion of the challenges in identifying those components within the structure of the opinion.
The components identified here are:
- caption/name of parties
- name of the court
- date of the opinion
- date of oral arguments in appellate cases
- citation information
- name of judge(s) who wrote the opinion
- case history
- procedural posture (stage at which opinion was issued)
- information about facts of the case (especially for trial court opinions)
- statement of legal issues involved
- the holding (decision about the issues)
- the judge's reasoning
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The opinion will also typically give the name of the judge or justice who wrote it. In some cases, judges sitting together will decide not to reveal wh o wrote an opinion. In that situation, it will say p e r c u r i a m /DWLQIRU³E\WKHFRXUW ́ ) i QSODFHRIDMXGJH¶VQDPH
The garbled text quoted here should be:
it will say per curiam (Latin for "by the court") in place of a judge's name.
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In a judicial opinion, the judge explains her ruling and the reasoning behind it. At its heart, an opinion is similar to a scholarly essay or even a short story. However, like any genre, the judicial opinion has some unique and unusual characteristics.
The purpose of a judicial opinion is to explain the ruling and the reasoning behind it.
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www.lib.jjay.cuny.edu www.lib.jjay.cuny.edu
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Student brief A student brief is a short summary and analysis of the case prepared for use in classroom discussion. It is a set of notes, presented in a systematic way, in order to sort out the parties, identify the issues, ascertain what was decided, and analyze the reasoning behind decisions made by the courts. Although student briefs always include the same items of information, the form in which these items are set out can vary. Before committing yourself to a particular form for briefing cases, check with your instructor to ensure that the form you have chosen is acceptable.
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Appellate brief An appellate brief is a written legal argument presented to an appellate court. Its purpose is to persuade the higher court to uphold or reverse the trial court’s decision. Briefs of this kind are therefore geared to presenting the issues involved in the case from the perspective of one side only. Appellate briefs from both sides can be very valuable to anyone assessing the legal issues raised in a case. Unfortunately, they are rarely published. The U.S. Supreme Court is the only court for which briefs are regularly available in published form. The Landmark Briefs series (REF. LAW KF 101.9 .K8) includes the full texts of briefs relating to a very few of the many cases heard by this court. In addition, summaries of the briefs filed on behalf of the plaintiff or defendant for all cases reported are included in the U.S. Supreme Court Reports. Lawyer’s Ed., 2nd. series (REF. LAW KF 101 .A42).
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Confusion often arises over the term “legal brief.” There are at least two different senses in which the term is used.
Two different sense of the term legal brief are described here: appellate brief and student brief.
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- Nov 2013
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caseyboyle.net caseyboyle.net
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For all that, Quintilian continues and main-tains his own opinion that since dialectic is a virtue, so therefore is rhetoric. Quintilian should turn the whole thing around and should more correctly conclude that since dialectic is not a moral virtue which can shape a good man, so neither is rhetoric.
Dictating opinion? Hmmm, okay. By definition, opinion is grounded in personal anecdote and perception. This follows the same kind of logic. "He says that X = Y and therefore so does Z. But no! X=Y so W=Z." This is the overall issue with syllogisms: making inferences. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't.
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- Sep 2013
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caseyboyle.net caseyboyle.net
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For the incantation's power, communicating with the soul's opinion, enchants and persuades and changes it, by trickery.
Our world is shaped by perceptions, defined by words.
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hence it is not now easy to remember the past or consider the present or foretell the future; so that most people on most subjects furnish themselves with opinion as advisor to the soul.
Opinion vs. memory, as if memory were absolute, infallible, objective.
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