< Canadian Criminal Trial Advocacy  
        
      The Closing Argument is portion of the trial where counsel can present and explain the reason why the trier-of-fact should decide in their favour.
Effective Argumentation
Justice Antonin Scalia of the US Supreme Court lists 16 rules of argumentation before a judge in his book "Making your case: The art of persuading judges":
- Be sure the court has jurisdiction
 - know your audience
 - Know your case
 - Know your adversary's case
 - Pay attentions to the standard of decision
 - Never overstate your case. Be scrupulously accurate
 - Occupy the most defensible terrain
 - Yield indefensible terrain
 - Take Pains to select the best arguments
 - Communicate clearly and concisely
 - Appeal not just to rules but also common sense
 - When you must rely on fairness to modify the strict application of the law, identify some jurisprudential maxim that supports you
 - Reason is paramount and that overt appeal to emotions is resented
 - Assume a posture of respective intellectual equality with the bench
 - Maintain your emotions and do not accuse
 - Close in a powerful way and say explicitly what you want the court to do
 
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