Legal Advocacy as a Means of Defining Social Policy

Abstract

No issue better frames public policy concerns relating to the treatment of persons with AIDS (PWA) than the controversy over the presence, in public schools, of students infected with the acquired immune deficiency syndrome virus. This article examines efforts within the legal community to define the admission exclusion issue argumentatively. The making and supporting of claims are rhetorical activities subject to critical analysis. Using strategies defined by Clark (1984), the author examines the definitions of the problem and potential solutions as presented in legal media. In addition to analysis of specific arguments, the author describes the role of legal media for the legal community, which has the ability to effect policy.

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