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10 Int'l J. Semiotics L. 3 (1997)

handle is hein.journals/intjsemi10 and id is 1 raw text is: International Journal for the Semiotics of Law VoI.X no.28 [19971 SIR EDWARD COKE, CICERONIANUS: CLASSICAL RHETORIC AND THE COMMON LAW TRADITION by ALLEN D. BOYER* And verily I suppose, if there might once happen some man, having an excellent wit ... exactly or deeply learned in the art of an orator, and also in the laws of this realm ... undoubtedly it should not be impossible for him to bring the pleading and reasoning of the law, to the ancient form of noble orators. -- Sir Thomas Elyot John Selden, reflecting on the common law, called it the English Janus.1 The image of Janus is an apt one to consider when thinking of Sir Edward Coke, no less than when considering the law for which he served as apologist and prophet. The face we know best is that of the Elizabethan judge, with pointed beard and velvet cap and chain of office, who stares piercingly at us from the deepest alcove of the law library. Looking back at Coke, we see the first titan in the history of the modern common law, the earliest judge and jurisprudent whose works are still regularly cited by practicing lawyers. But Coke has another aspect, one which it is harder to recover. From his Elizabethan vantage-point he looks back into different * New York Stock Exchange Enforcement Division. B.A. Vanderbilt University, J.D. University of Virginia, Ph.D. University of St. Andrews. Opinions expressed herein are solely those of the author and are not necessarily those of the New York Stock Exchange, Inc. or any of its officers. Thanks are due, for their assistance, suggestions, and encouragement, to Roscoe A. Boyer, Kathleen Dicks Boyer, J.H. Baker, Thomas Barnes, Daniel Coquillette, Charles Gray, Richard Helgerson, David Ibbetson, W.J. Jones, Mark Nicholls, Jack Schlegel, David Seipp, Richard Sherwin, Michael Sinclair, Aviam Soifer, Victor Tunkel, David Warrington, faculty symposium participants at Boston College Law School, and the librarians of the New York Law Institute, New York County Lawyers Society, British Library, and Cambridge University Library. Manuscript research was graciously supported by the American Philosophical Society. I John Selden, Jani Anglorum FaciesAltera (1610).

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