What Persuades (or What's Going On inside the Judge's Mind)

• Author: John I. Laskin
• Pages: 225-238

What

Persuades

(or

What's

Going

On

inside

the

Judge's

Mind)

Justice

John

L

Laskin"

[Editors' note: This

is an

edited version

of a

talk given

on 21

Novem-

ber

2003

at The

Advocates'

Society

Fall

Convention

in

Cancun,

Mex-

ico.

Justice

Laskin

would like

to

thank

his law

clerk, Leigh Salsberg,

for her

research,

her

insights,

and her

superb

editing

of

this

paper.]

I

want

to

thank Wendy Matheson

and

Sandy Forbes

for

inviting

me to

this beautiful resort

to

speak

to you

this

morning. However, they,

not I,

should

be

giving this talk

for it is

they

who

persuaded

a

reluctant judge

to

speak about persuasion.

My

reluctance springs

from

two

sources.

One is

that this room

is

filled

with many

of the

finest persuaders

our

profession

has to

offer.

The

other

is

that some

of our

finest judges have already given

so

much

valu-

able advice

on

this subject.

I

think

of

John Arnup's instructive

articles,1

which have withstood

the

test

of

time, though written over twenty years

ago,

when

I was a

young lawyer;

and

more

recently

of Ian

Binnie's

Sopinka

and

Dubin lectures, each

a

tour

deforce. 2

And I

think

of

Horace

Mr.

Justice

John

I.

Laskin,

Court

of

Appeal

for

Ontario.

John

D.

Arnup, "Advocacy" (David

B.

Goodman Memorial Lecture)

(1979)

13

L.

Soc.

Gaz.

at

27;

John

D.

Arnup,

"Advocacy

on

Appeal" (Bar Admission

Course

lecture,

1971).

Ian

Binnie,

"A

Survivor's Guide

to

Advocacy

in the

Supreme Court

of

Canada"

(First

John

Sopinka

Advocacy

Lecture) (Summer

1999)

Advocates'

Soc.J.;

Ian

Bin-

225

i

2