Refitation may be understood in two senses.
For the duty of the defence consists wholly in
refutation, while whatever is said by our opponents
must be rebutted, whether we are speaking for the
defence or the prosecution. It is in this sense that
refutation is assigned the fourth place1 in pleadings,
but the methods required in either case are identical.
For the principles of argument in refutation can
only be drawn from the same sources as those used
in proof, while topics and thoughts, words and figures
will all be on the same lines.
1 (i) exoidium, (ii) statement of facts, (iii) confirmation, (iv) refutation, (v) peroration.
Quintilian. With An English Translation. Harold Edgeworth Butler. Cambridge. Cambridge, Mass., Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann, Ltd. 1921.
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