Today's DJ features UCLA Law Prof. Samuel Bray's piece titled "This and that and the Constitution," a preview into his forthcoming law review article about hendiadys in the Constitution. What?! Never heard that term before? Well, he explains:Hendiadys - pronounced "hen-DIE-u-dus" - is a figure of speech. It is the use of two terms, separated by a conjunction, that work together as a single unit of meaning. For example, if a farmer says his cow is "nice and fat," he does not mean two things: first, the cow has a pleasant disposition; second, the cow is weighty. He means just one thing: The cow is nicely fat, quite fat. This figure of speech is common in a wide variety of languages. In English it is found in many sources, including the Bible ("the earth was without form and void"), Shakespeare ("the flash and outbreak of a fiery mind"), and Blackstone ("[to act] with prudence and reputation as an advocate"). Sometimes it is hard to determine whether a phrase is a hendiadys (as opposed to two requirements, or a tautology, or a term of art). If a phrase is an instance of hendiadys, its meaning still has to be determined from context.
Monday's DJ also presented How RBG and O'Connor Defied the Odds, and Changed the World, a book review by Tyna Orren of Sisters in Law, by Linda Hirshman. Law360 today presents 5 Things to Leave Out of Your Next Brief:
1- Information Overload
2- Why you Hate the Opposing Counsel
3- Long Lectures on Legal Standards
4- Repeated Arguments
5- Needless Words
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