Part 1.) In important court cases, individuals who are not involved may make a recommendation to the judges in what we call an amicus brief — a suggestion from “a friend of the court” who may have expertise or a special perspective on the case.

As a “friend of the court,” make a recommendation to Jean de Corras, the Counsel of Toulouse, regarding the case of Martin Guerre. What charges to do recommend? Against whom? Why? What evidence supports your recommendation? You may also write about what you think the Parliament of Toulouse got wrong in the case (or you can save that for a later stage when you are considering the information on the Wikipedia page, Montaigne’s essay, and Descartes Discourse on Method.)

This is a very beginning draft, so just set down your ideas. Read it and reread it aloud to catch missing or repeated words — the sorts of errors we make because we write on computers. Don’t worry about the quality of your writing just now–at this stage it is all about ideas. You will have multiple chances to revise your work.

PART 2.) OK,, you have put down your initial thoughts on Martin Guerre vs Martin Guerre and received some feedback. You should now revise your work and add to it.

1. Revise and expand your recommendations on the case. Add details and explanations. You should at least double or triple what you initially wrote.

2. Add two paragraphs on two of the following issues:

a) on Montainge’s essayPreview the documentView in a new window, “On the Lame” (summaryPreview the documentView in a new window)

b) bringing in details on the Martin Guerre case from the Wikipedia page (Links to an external site.).

c) refer to a modern court case that is relevant

d) sixteenth-century marriage law (I attach the whole book, The Return of Martin GuerrePreview the documentView in a new window by Natalie Zemon Davis — the basis for the movie. The index tells you where to find marriage law, canon (Church) law, civil law, customary law, etc. Enjoy!)

If you want to go in a different direction, please get my approval. Remember to cite your sources (especially a modern court case because I need to follow up on that). Pls. include URLs in your citations.

After these revisions and additions, your section on Martin Guerre should be the biggest (probably multiple paragraphs), and the two other sections will each be shorter (probably one paragraph each). After this work, your paper should turn out to be somewhere between 750 (minimum) and about 1200 words.

This is not yet the final product. We will add introductions and conclusion, polish the writing, make sure that you have page number, a title, and correctly formatted citations, etc.

Part 3.) Reorganize your essay according to the order that you are proposing in your second outline (though it is possible that you may change it a little more). Create transitions or fix them, and write your introduction and conclusion. Please give your essay a title and cite your sources. You should aim for a minimum of 1000 words.

If possible, bring Descartes into the intro and conclusion, or just the conclusion. Some ways in which Descartes may be relevant are:

reasonable doubt (vs. Descartes radical doubt),
you might organize your argument according to Descartes’ four rules of thinking (truth, subdivide problem, solve easiest and work toward the hardest, check and review),
Descartes’ notion of “provisional moralities” might be useful.
However, Descartes might not work with what you have written. In that case don’t force it.