Title

Scorn

Document Type

Working Paper

Publication Date

6-30-2012

SSRN Discipline

Legal Scholarship Network; Rhetoric & Communication Research Network; Law & Society eJournals; LSN Subject Matter eJournals; Humanities Network; Political Science Network; RCRN Subject Matter eJournals

Abstract

This article reviews examples of scornful contemptuous belittling or sarcastic language by judges addressing litigants who are poor marginalized or seeking to redress unfamiliar injuries Often courts employ language of this sort when dismissing cases that strike them as offthewall or when imposing Rule 11 sanctions for claims that seem to them frivolous The authors develop a theory to understand and limit sarcasm and satire to situations that genuinely call for them

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