Lo scontro dibattimentale tra le parti nella retorica giudiziaria di Ermagora

Abstract

The dialectical confrontation between the parties in the trial is the criterion the doctrine of the status causae of Hermagoras of Temno is based on. Classification of forensic rhetoric into legal genus and rationale genus, and connections between them, are the expression of the ways in which prosecution and defense can set a case, as conflict of opposed reasons in the production and the interpretation of a legally significant fact. To every change available to prosecutor in order to establish the fact in relation to (a) its legal status, i.e. the type of crime, (b) the amount of damages, and (c) the consequences on the victim, many chances correspond the defense has in order to show that (a) the legal framework, (b) the amount of damages and (c) the consequences on the victim are not those represented by the prosecutor. Indeed in extreme cases they do not exist at all. Such a rhetoric articulation involves an overall theory of law and in particular of criminal law, which too has his focal point in the battle of his parties. In it the doctrine of the status causae is inserted as a description of different oratory changes of framing the matter in a lawful manner.