Penumbral Thinking Revisited: Metaphor in Legal Argumentation

Abstract:     
This article looks at the use of metaphor in legal argumentation, using as its example the penumbra metaphor found in Griswold v. Connecticut, 381 U.S. 479 (1965) and the subsequent controversy over its use. The article points out that some of this controversy may lie in longstanding attitudes toward the place of metaphor in language and thought, but that under contemporary cognitive theories of metaphor, that controversy is misdirected. Justice Douglas’s metaphor offers an appropriate example of what could be called a spatial metaphor. His expression of the metaphorical entailment, however, may be inaccurate - a more legitimate area of concern and a possible object lesson for the use of metaphors in legal argumentation.

Number of Pages in PDF File: 30

Keywords: legal argument, metaphor

Accepted Paper Series