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Legal Systems and Dissimulation
America and Great Britain have the adversary legal system, not the
inquiry system found in Germany, Italy, France, and Spain.
In the adversary system the opposing sides selectively emphasize some
facts and denigrate other facts often using dramatic devices and
rhetorical flourishes. These tactics are used as lawyers make motions,
conduct discovery, enter objections, examine witnesses, and deliver
closing arguments. This is done to cast their own facts in the best
possible light and to cast the other side's facts in the worst possible
light.
It's clear an adversary legal system requires that lawyers be
skilled in the arts of dissimulation - a form of lying - that involves
the fervent telling of half truths and the skillful misleading of others
through verbal indirection.
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