Dissenting from the Bench: The Performative Jurisprudence of Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Antonin Scalia
Guest Lecturer
Christine Venter
Christine Venter is the Director of the Legal Writing Program at Notre Dame Law School. She earned her B.A. degree from the University of Cape Town and her law degree from the University of Cape Town School of Law, where she was Editor in Chief of the Law Review. She also holds an LL.M in International Law and Human Rights (summa cum laude) from Notre Dame Law School and a J.S.D., also from NDLS.
Venter teaches Legal Writing I, Legal Research and Writing II, and Gender Issues and International Law. She also teaches International Moot Court and serves as the coach to the International Moot Court team.
The lecture will feature Venter's 2021 article, Dissenting from the Bench: The Performative Jurisprudence of Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Antonin Scalia, which received the 2021 Teresa G. Phelps Award for Scholarship in Legal Communication from the Legal Writing Institute. The article article examines the phenomenon of oral dissents by Justices Scalia and Ginsburg by juxtaposing their respective approaches and reflecting on their unique rhetorical styles.
About the lecture
The Judy Stinson Lecture is an annual event featuring a legal scholar hosted by ASU Law. The lecture series is named after Judy Stinson, who retired in 2020 after teaching legal writing for 27 years. Judy's distinguished career includes both the Thomas F. Blackwell Award and the Rocky Mountain Award. She is a previous president of the Association of Legal Writing Directors and member of its Board of Directors. With Suzanne Rabe and Terry Pollman, she co-founded the Rocky Mountain Legal Writing Conference in 2000. She is the author of EXAMPLES & EXPLANATIONS: LEGAL WRITING, now in its third edition (with Terry Pollman as co-author) and THE TAO OF LEGAL WRITING, as well as numerous articles.
Judy was the Director of ASU Law’s Legal Method and Writing Program from 1997 to 2011, when the program became autonomous. She was also the Director of the Academic Success Program from 1997 to 2006. She served as Associate Dean of Academic Affairs from 2011 to 2017, and then Executive Associate Dean from 2017 to 2018. In 2019, ASU awarded her the Distinguished Professorship in Legal Method, a fully endowed $1 million professorship.