Demystifying legal reasoning / Larry Alexander, Emily Sherwin.

Format:

• Book

Author/Creator:

• Alexander, Larry, 1943-

Contributor:

• Sherwin, Emily, 1955-

Series:

• Cambridge introductions to philosophy and law

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

• Law--Methodology.
• Logic.
• Reasoning.

Physical Description:

viii, 253 pages ; 24 cm.

Place of Publication:

New York : Cambridge University Press, 2008.

Summary:

Demystifying Legal Reasoning defends the proposition that there are no special forms of reasoning peculiar to law. Legal decision makers engage in the same modes of reasoning that all actors use in deciding what to do: open-ended moral reasoning, empirical reasoning, and deduction from authoritative rules. This book addresses common-law reasoning, when prior judicial decisions determine the law, and interpretation of texts. In both areas, the popular view that legal decision makers practice special forms of reasoning is false.

Contents:

• Part 1 Law and Its Function
• I Settling Moral Controversy 9
• Part 2 Common-Law Reasoning: Deciding Cases When Prior Judicial Decisions Determine the Law
• II Ordinary Reason Applied to Law: Natural Reasoning and Deduction from Rules 31
• III The Mystification of Common-Law Reasoning 64
• IV Common-Law Practice 104
• Part 3 Reasoning from Canonical Legal Texts
• V Interpreting Statutes and Other Posited Rules 131
• VI Infelicities of the Intended Meaning of Canonical Texts and Norms Constraining Interpretation 167
• VII Nonintentionalist Interpretation 191
• VIII Is Constitutional Interpretation Different? Why It Isn't and Is 220.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 237-245) and index.

ISBN:

• 9780521878982
• 0521878985
• 9780521703956
• 0521703956

OCLC:

181424043

Online:

• Contributor biographical information
• Publisher description