Watts here argues that conventions of oral rhetoric were adapted to shape the literary form and contents of the Pentateuch. The large-scale structure-stories introducing lists of laws that conclude with divine sanctions-reproduces a common ancient strategy for persuasion. The laws' use of direct address, historical motivations and frequent repetitions serve rhetorical ends, and even the legal contradictions seem designed to appeal to competing constituencies. The instructional speeches of God and Moses reinforce the persuasive appeal by characterizing God as a just ruler and Moses as a faithful scribe. The Pentateuch was designed to persuade Persian-period Judaeans that this Torah should define their identity as Israel.

In this groundbreaking book, Scalia and Garner systematically explain all the most important principles of constitutional, statutory, and contractual interpretation in an engaging and informative style with hundreds of illustrations from actual cases. Is a burrito a sandwich? Is a corporation entitled to personal privacy? If you trade a gun for drugs, are you using a gun in a drug transaction? The authors grapple with these and dozens of equally curious questions while explaining the most principled, lucid, and reliable techniques for deriving meaning from authoritative texts. Meanwhile, the book takes up some of the most controversial issues in modern jurisprudence. What, exactly, is textualism? Why is strict construction a bad thing? What is the true doctrine of originalism? And which is more important: the spirit of the law, or the letter? The authors write with a well-argued point of view that is definitive yet nuanced, straightforward yet sophisticated.

The supplemental materials website containing feedback to the end-of-chapter exercises has been changed to www.caplaw.com/rll From Reading Like a Lawyer: "Just as storytelling is rooted in a rich oral history, and art is rooted in a rich visual history, law is rooted in a rich history of the written word. . . . the development of law rests primarily on written precedent and written rules housed in centuries of court opinions and statute books. To be understood, law has to be read, and read well." Written in an engaging style and full of real-life examples, Reading Like a Lawyer approaches the topic of reading law with contagious enthusiasm and an abiding respect for the importance of learning to read law well. Now in its third edition, Reading Like a Lawyer enjoys a fresh new look and continues to include practice exercises at the end of each chapter and an accompanying website that allows students to test their growing knowledge about legal reading against that of the author. Written for law students, pre-law students, paralegals, and the public, Reading Like a Lawyer uses active learning principles to help readers adapt their incoming reading skills to the skills needed to succeed in law: how to read legal casebooks and engage confidently in class; how to use assigned reading and class time to prepare for exams; how to read published court cases outside of a casebook; how to read legislative material (statutes) accurately; and how to make wise reading choices online. For faculty, Reading Like a Lawyer includes a separate teacher's manual with ideas for using the book and its examples with individuals and groups, a list of additional cases for more student practice, and access to a Powerpoint they can use to illustrate the book's principle lessons. Included on the American Bar Association's "Summer Syllabus: List of Books to Read Before the Start of Law School," Student Lawyer magazine, June 2019, Reading Like a Lawyer can be assigned in a class setting or as a recommended summer read, or can be read independently by anyone who has ever wondered, "how do lawyers read the law?"

Casuistic or case law in the Pentateuch deals with real human affairs; each case law entails a compressed story that can encourage reader engagement with seemingly "dry" legal text. This book is the first to present an interpretive method integrating biblical law, jurisprudence, and literary theory, reflecting the current "law and literature" school within legal studies. It identifies the narrative elements that exist in the laws of the Pentateuch, exposes the narrative techniques employed by the authors, and discovers the poetics of biblical law, thus revealing new or previously unconsidered aspects of the relationship between law and narrative in the Bible

In the current legal climate where “everyone is an originalist,” conventional wisdom suggests that judges merely find law, rather than make it. Orthodox common-law jurisprudence makes fidelity to the past the central goal and criterion. By contrast, the alternative approach, “reading the law forward”—what some call judicial pragmatism or consequentialism—is viewed as heretical. Rather than mount a theoretical defense of a forward-thinking jurisprudence, legal historian Peter Charles Hoffer offers an empirical study of how this approach to constitutional interpretation actually leads to better law. Reading Law Forward looks at seven judges who exemplify this alternative jurisprudence: John Marshall, Joseph Story, Lemuel Shaw, Louis D. Brandeis, Benjamin Cardozo, William O. Douglas, and Stephen G. Breyer. “In the hands of America’s leading judges, a jurisprudence of reading law forward enabled courts to respond to the challenges of changing conditions. It kept law fresh. It promoted and still promotes the growth of a democratic society,” Hoffer convincingly argues.