The Role of Metaphor in Legal Judgments: Law as a Creative Narrative

According to this study, judicial opinions are creative narratives with metaphor acting as their primary discursive engine rather than being merely objective applications of the law. Beyond the conventional understanding of law as a purely objective and logical system, this study explores how judges use fundamental metaphors like "the wall of separation," "the marketplace of ideas," or "the stream of commerce" to organise legal reasoning, influence how facts are perceived, and ultimately persuade. Through an analysis of landmark rulings, this paper shows that these metaphors are not just decorative; they are part of the legal meaning, forming the conceptual frameworks that are used to comprehend and settle disputes. Consequently, this narrative and metaphorical process reveals law as a deeply humanistic and rhetorical practice, where judicial storytelling, powered by metaphor, plays a critical role in constructing legal reality and legitimizing judicial authority. The research concludes that acknowledging this creative dimension is essential for a critical and comprehensive understanding of jurisprudence.

Conceptual Metaphor Theory (CMT), Judicial Rhetoric, Legal Semiotics, Legal Metaphor, Judicial Reasoning, Legal Narrative, Law and Literature.

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