Common sense and legal judgment : community knowledge, political power, and rhetorical practice / Patricia Cochran.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Cochran, Patricia, author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Common sense.

Judgment.

Justice.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (273 pages)

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

Montreal, [Quebec Province] : McGill-Queen's University Press, 2017.

Summary:

What does it mean when a judge in a court of law uses the phrase “common sense”? Is it a type of evidence or a mode of reasoning? In a world characterized by material and political inequalities, whose common sense should inform the law? Common Sense and Legal Judgment explores this rhetorically powerful phrase, arguing that common sense, when invoked in political and legal discourses without adequate reflection, poses a threat to the quality and legitimacy of legal judgment. Often operating in the service of conservatism, populism, or majoritarianism, common sense can harbour stereotypes, reproduce unjust power relations, and silence marginalized people. Nevertheless, drawing the works of theorists such as Thomas Reid, Antonio Gramsci, and Hannah Arendt into conversation with rulings by the Supreme Court of Canada, Patricia Cochran demonstrates that with careful attention, the democratic, egalitarian, and community-sustaining aspects of common sense can be brought to light. A call for critical self-reflection and the close scrutiny of power relationships and social contexts, this book is a direct response to social justice predicaments and their confounding relationships to law. Creative and interdisciplinary, Common Sense and Legal Judgment reinvigorates feminist and anti-poverty understandings of judgment, knowledge, justice, and accountability.

Contents:

Front Matter

Contents

Acknowledgments

Introduction

Common Sense: Self-evident and Inscrutable

Thomas Reid s Common Sense: Accountability for Judgment and the Boundaries of Debate

Antonio Gramsci’s Common Sense: History, Power, and Our Conception of the World

Hannah Arendt’s Common Sense: Imagining Communities and the Basis of Valid Judgment

Conclusion: Common Sense for Good Legal Judgment

Notes

Bibliography

Index

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Description based on online resource; title from PDF title page (ebrary, viewed November 18, 2017).

ISBN:

9780773552319

0773552316

9780773552326

0773552324

OCLC:

1005335330