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Allen D. Boyer, "Sir Edward Coke, Ciceronianus: "Classical Rhetoric and the Common Law Tradition", International Journal for the Semiotics of Law / Revue Internationale de Sémiotique Juridique Vol.X no.28 (1997), 3-36: This article discusses Sir Edward Coke and how his training in Ciceronian rhetoric shaped his work as a judge and his writings on the common law. It also discusses the close connection which existed between the discourse arts and the common law during the Elizabethan age. Common lawyers, trained in the humanist tradition, studied Latin works of oratory (most notably, those of Cicero). Legal practice, legal education, and the emerging case method reflected rhetorical models. The rhetoricians' belief that oratory shaped society is the mirror image of the contemporary belief that social patterns are texts which can be read through semiotics, and their equation of eloquence with life draws the same connection as the modern connection of law and society. As a matter of legal history, Coke's background in rhetoric laid the foundation for his Reports and his Institutes, including his magisterial Commentary upon Littleton. As a matter of jurisprudence, it taught Coke and other Tudor judges to weigh public policy in deciding cases. In the area of constitutional law, the way in which the rhetorice of judicial review.

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