A Comparative Analysis of the Graduation Resources Used by the Defense Lawyers in Chinese and American Courts——A Case Study of the Wang Chengzhong Case and the Stump Case

Abstract

Based on one of the subsystems of the appraisal system—the graduation system, this article analyzes the utterances of the defense lawyers in the Stump case and the Wang Chengzhong case to compare the similarities and differences of the graduation resources by the defense lawyers on both cases, to reveal the reasons behind them, and to explore what role these graduation resources play in court defense discourse. The study found that the overall trends of the graduation resources used by the defense lawyers in the Stump case and the Wang Chengzhong case are similar. Both parties prefer to use force resources while use focus resources less frequently. This is mainly related to the effects of different kinds of graduation resources and the responsibilities of defense lawyers. In focus resources, in Wang Chengzhong case, the proportion of sharpening resources is significantly higher than that of softening resources, while in Stump case, the proportion of softening resources is higher than that of sharpening resources. This may be related to the differences of eastern and western thinking pattern and the nature of these two different cases.

Keywords: graduation system, defense lawyers, courtroom discourse, case study

DOI: 10.7176/JLLL/74-01

Publication date: December 31^st 2020