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UNIVERSITY OF SANTO TOMAS

FACULTY OF CIVIL LAW

LEGAL TECHNIQUE AND LOGIC

I. LOGIC: A Review

1. Logic, Definition
2. Importance of Logic
3. Language
a. General Features
b. General Characteristics
c. Sciences of Language
d. Functions of Language
e. Definition
e.1 Types
e.2 Rules for a Good Definition
4. Proposition v. Definition
5. Categorical Propositions
a. Elements and Logical Structure
b. Quantity and Quality
c. Square of Opposition
d. The Syllogism
e. Eight General Syllogistic Rules (Rules on the Terms and Premises)
6. Enthymeme
7. Induction, Deduction and Argument by Analogy
8. Fallacies
a. Formal Fallacies
a.1 Fallacies in Categorical Syllogisms
a.1.1 Four terms
a.1.2 Undistributed Middle Term
a.1.3 Illicit Major Term
a.1.4 Illicit Minor Term
a.1.5 Negative Premises
a.1.6 Particular Premises
b. Informal Fallacies
b.1 Fallacies of Relevance
b.1.1 Argumentum ad Ignorantiam
b.1.2 Argumentum ad Misericordiam
b.1.3 Argumentuma ad Verecundiam
b.1.4 Argumentum ad Hominem
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b.1.5 Argumentum ad Populum

b.1.6 Argumentum ad Baculum
b.1.7 Argumentum ad Antiquitam
b.1.8 Argumentum ad Terrorem
b.1.9 Irrelevant Conclusion
b.1.10 Tu Quoque
b.1.11 Argumentum Ad Nauseam
b.2 Fallacies of Presumption
b.2.1 Compound (Complex) Questions
b.2.2 False Cause
b.2.3 Non Sequitur
b.2.4 Begging the Question
b.2.5 Accident
b.2.6 Converse Accident
b.3 Fallacies of Ambiguity
b.3.1 Equivocation
b.3.2 Amphibology
b.3.3 Accent
b.3.4 Composition
b.3.5 Division
b.3.6 Vicious Abstraction

II. LOGIC, LANGUAGE and the LAW

1. Stare Decisis (juris)

2. Judicial Flip-Flopping
 League of Cities juris
3. Problems with Jurisprudence
 People v. Dumadag, GR No. 176740, June 22, 2011
4. Deduction and Analogy
 First Philippine Industrial Corporation v. Court of Appeals (December 29, 1998)
 Cases- see p102
5. Importance of Language in Law
 Mellinkov, The Language of the Law (Chapters 1,2 and 3)
 Cardozo, “Law and Literature”, 1925 Yale Review 489; also, Law and Literature
and Other Essays by Cardozo (1931, Harcourt Brace & Co.)
 In re Justice Castillo, 632 SCRA 607 (2010)

III. SPECIAL TOPICS

 Villanueva, “Comparative Study of the Judicial Role and its Effects on the
Theory of Judicial Precedents in the Philippine Hybrid System,” 65 Phil. L.J. 42
(1990)
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 Pound, “Mechanical Jurisprudence”, Vol. VII, Columbia L. Rev. 605 (908)

 Holmes, “The Path of the Law”, X Harvard L.R. 457 (1897)
 De Castro v. JBC, 615 SCRA 666
 Articles of Impeachment Against Chief Justice, Answer of the Chief Justice

IV. READINGS

. To be advised every meeting

References:

Irving M. Copi & Carl Cohen, Introduction to Logic (2011)

Florentino T. Timbreza, Logic Made Simple for Filipinos (1992)