Drawing out Law: A Writer’s Guide

Writing is a key skill required in legal practice. Writers must convey complex legal concepts, develop and defend credible arguments, convincingly analogize and distinguish cases, and constructively yet critically construe statutes. All this necessitates attentiveness to a broader legal field’s contours. Furthermore, such writing must be precise, demonstrating acute attention to detail, with the goal of persuading judges, legislators, colleagues, and communities of the applicability of contested ideas. This course will consider legal writing from these perspectives by examining law review articles, chapters, and books written by Professor John Borrows over a 30-year period. Subjects examined include legal history, narrative, case law analysis (title, treaties, rights, consultation), legislative proposals, law society governance, legal education, international law applicability, economic development and trade, religion, Anishinaabe law, environmental kinship and law’s influence in everyday experiences.