ABSTRACT
This chapter illustrates the way in which a rhetorical analysis of legal argument can advance our understanding of the positions of the polemists. Doctor Morschakova's Diagnosis, in which well-known journalist and lawyer Leonid Nikitinsky discussed the problems of the Russian judicial system with Professor Tamara Morschakova. The concept of judicial reform in Russia was approved in 1991 by the Supreme Soviet of the RSFSR and aimed to bring about democratic change of the judicial system and administration of justice. Rhetorical analysis of the speech acts of prominent public personae also helps us to identify, understand and employ in our own activities the techniques of engaging language as a means of social control and power. From the philosophical point of view, the dispute was about transcendental substances or principles of higher law, which the judge may or may not use as legitimate grounds for judicial decisions.
