The Centrality of Metaphor in Legal Analysis and Communication: An Introduction

Law, as a domain of human enterprise, is fundamentally discursive in nature. As such, understanding the elements of legal discourse, both analytical and communicative, is vital to understanding the nature of the enterprise. Metaphorical reasoning, and the communication of that reasoning, is one such element. Perhaps metaphor is one among many elements of legal discourse.

In this view, metaphor theory would take its place alongside logic, narrative theory, rhetoric, and so on.