Specific Parameters in Argumentation as a Marker of Interference of Anglo-American Legal Experience

The purpose of the research: The research is aimed at identifying specific features of legal stereotypes representing special knowledge in the Anglo-Saxon law system as well as at defining interference markers of their actualization in the process of case analysis undertaken by Russian students studying legal English and the Anglo-American law system. The authors have attempted to specify and illustrate social and cultural parameters underlying the court argumentation and influencing the formation of a legal stereotype of reasonable man as well as to determine and describe the interference markers in the argumentation of Russian law students. The research that has been based on the discourse analysis has focused mainly on verbal representation of the already formed stereotypes and relied heavily on the results of the experiment with the involvement of Russian law students. According to the authors, identifying foreign legal stereotypes and interference markers may lay the foundation for further research aimed at studying compensatory potential of foreign legal stereotypes in case there is no appropriate stereotype shared by the Russian law community. Conclusions: The results of the research lead to the conclusion that in the process of modelling events typical of the English courtroom discourse and based on the argumentation principles echoing those applied by the judges in the original case a legal stereotype correlating with the stereotype in the consciousness of an English lawyer is formed in the consciousness of Russian law students. This stereotype further interferes with the perception of the Russian concept and gets actualized while analyzing cases in Russian. It is regarded desirable to work out recommendations for higher education syllabus to take compensatory potential of foreign legal stereotypes into account. The methodology and methods of the research: The commonly accepted dialectical method of studying societal processes and social and legal phenomena as well as their interconnection and interdependence has been applied as the methodological basis for the research aimed at determining the ways through which stereotypes representing special knowledge in the Anglo-Saxon law system are formed and at defining interference markers of their actualization in the process of case analysis undertaken by Russian students studying legal English and the Anglo-American law system. Alongside the dialectical method, the following private scientific methods have been exploited: the formal logical method helping to identify characteristics of stereotypes; discourse analysis focusing on verbal representation of stereotypes and contributing to modelling their structure; an experiment based on social research and carried out in the form of an interview that has helped to reveal interference markers for stereotypes and mindsets based on legally relevant social and cultural parameters in the course of legal argumentation.

legal stereotypes, legal mindsets, interference markers, legal argumentation, social and cultural parameters