Tremmel Flórián: Retorika és igazságszolgáltatás

Abstract

The review praises Flórián Tremmel's monograph "Rhetoric and Justice," published in 2014. Melinda Hengl highlights the work's gap-filling nature in Hungarian literature, as it subjects both prosecution and defense speeches to a parallel, in-depth rhetorical analysis. The author presents the book's carefully constructed structure, which is divided into two main parts. The first part deals with ancient forensic oratory, focusing on the works of Cicero and Quintilian. It discusses in detail the basic concepts of classical rhetoric, such as ethos, pathos, logos, and the system Flórián Tremmel calls the "double pentamer": the five rhetorical tasks (invention, disposition, elocution, memory, pronunciation) and the five basic parts of speech (introduction, narration, proof, refutation, conclusion). The second part examines contemporary Hungarian forensic oratory, showing the transformation of rhetoric into an interdisciplinary field (influences of social psychology, communication theory). The review highlights the author's original contribution, the development of the classical pentamer system into a septenary (seven-membered) one, which better fits the structure of modern speeches (e.g., by including characterization and legal qualification). The work analyzes in detail every element of the content structure of a speech, giving practical advice and pointing out typical mistakes, all illustrated by the analysis of famous recent Hungarian speeches. The review emphasizes that the book is a useful handbook not only for novice lawyers but also for experienced professionals and political actors, combining classical knowledge with modern challenges and advocating for well-prepared, extemporaneous live speech.