Sidelined on the (Judicial) Bench Sports Metaphors in Judicial Opinions

From "Acing the Test" to "Touching Base": The Sports Metaphor in the Classroom

“…Also, metaphors can often communicate more efficiently than other forms of expression. For example, Archer and Cohen (1998) argue that court judges often use sports metaphors in their judicial opinions to capture a point quickly. Finally, listeners usually respond to metaphors.…”

Evolution of metaphors: Phylogeny of oil slick cartoons in Spanish press

“…In this sense, metaphors are a powerful epistemic shortcut, probably significant for language evolution: Forceville et al (2006) suggested that the human ability to metaphorize has adaptive value and would have provided an evolutionary advantage to the first humans who used them. In any case, metaphors are widely spread in human language, and we can easily find them in court proceedings (Archer and Cohen, 1998), sports events (Palmatier and Ray, 1989), education (Cameron, 2003; Low, 2008), treatment of diseases (Casarett et al, 2010; Jasen, 2009; Laranjeira, 2013), political proceedings (Bougher, 2012; McEntee-Atalianis, 2013), scientific and environmental language (Cohen, 2011; Knudsen, 2005), and many other cultural fields such as literature, art, and music (Gibbs, 2008).…”

A Decade of Technology and Transition: The American Business Law Journal, 1990–1999

“…In 1998, the Journal published a special issue on sports law, spearheaded by Special Editor Ken Shropshire of the Wharton School and under the editorship of Jere Morehead of the University of Georgia. 19 Articles in the issue explored the impact of sport on safety law 20 and judicial metaphor, 21 as well as more conventional areas of agency, 22 regulation of players' agents, 23 and the impact of major league monopoly power on the Negro Leagues. 24 Clearly, the late 1990s' editorial boards considered special issues a successful way of organizing and disseminating scholarship.…”