LEGAL REASONING AND

ARGUMENTATION

Mrs Vaishali Vijay Jadhav

Assistant Professor, Yashwantrao Chavan Law
College, Pune.
 INTRODUCTION

Legal Scholarship 2 broad legal traditions,

Black-letter law(traditional)/ Doctrinal Research

Law in context(modern)/Empirical Legal Scholarship/

Socio-legal Studies

Logic and the law are intertwined

 LEGAL REASONING
Legal reasoning refers to the process of thinking to
come to the decision relating to Law.

Four basic components-

Logic
Justice
Experience and
Policy

The mechanism of legal reasoning should not be concealed

by its pretense.
General Def. of Law
 LOGIC
Logic(Greek)=thought
Logic is the science of correct thinking.
Goal
Logic Truth

Thinking is an intellectual activity and 3 step

process:
Simple apprehension
Judgment
Reasoning (Inductive or Deductive)

Reasoning should be without fallacies(errors).

 LEGAL STUDIES

Two principle questions asked in legal studies,

1. What the law should be ? (philosophers are

more interested ) and

2. What procedures for making law should be

adopted? (practicing attorneys )
i.e what the law is and how it should be
applied. practicing attorneys in the latter.
 GROUNDS OF JUSTIFICATION

1. Legal Moralism - The claim that the law should

make illegal anything that is immoral.
2. Harm principle - The only legitimate basis for
forbidding X is that doing X causes harm to
others.
3. Legal paternalism - Laws can be justified if
they prevent a person from doing harm to oneself.
4. The offence principle If causes great offence
to others.
FORMS OF LOGICAL REASONING
Deductive reasoning
Proving a conclusion by means of two other
propositions
By far the most frequently used form of
reasoning conclusions under the law
Inductive generalization
Arriving at sweeping generalizations based upon
a smaller, more discrete event
Analogy
The comparison of two different things in order
to draw a conclusions about both
 DEDUCTIVE REASONING

One of two main forms of logical reasoning

Important to the legal system and reasoning since
this form of reasoning provides a grounded
foundation for conclusions
Deduction in reasoning in which a conclusion is
compelled by facts
If A and B are true so must C
X is 6 feet tall; Y is taller than X; Y must be taller
than 6 feet
 DEDUCTION AND LEGAL REASONING

Syllogisticreasoning is the deductive

reasoning that is also used in judicial
opinions, briefs and memos
Instead of a result being COMPELLED by
two FACTS it is instead INFERRED from
two PREMISES
Major premise + minor premise =
conclusion
What is true of the universe is true of the
particular
SYLLOGISM LIES AT THE HEART OF LEGAL
WRITING

Meaning- an instance of a form of reasoning in

which a conclusion is drawn from two given or
assumed propositions (premises);
a common or middle term is present in the two
premises but not in the conclusion, which may be
invalid (e.g. all dogs are animals; all animals
have four legs; therefore all dogs have four
legs ).
 LEARN TO THINK IN SYLLOGISMS

syllogistic
arguments must in case briefs,
legal writing, exams etc to succeed.
 DEVELOPING THE SKILL OF
THINKING/REASONING IN SYLLOGISMS?

Construct a general rule as a major premise

Widely known legal rule
Applicable and relevant to your facts
Construct a minor premise for your facts
Draw a conclusion based upon how that
general rule applies to the minor premise
about facts
 ANALOGY

Plays a critical role in oral argument

Used to test the validity of an argument

Mastering the use of analogy is one of the most

crucial aspects of thinking/reading like a lawyer
 STRUCTURE OF ANALOGY

A has characteristic C
B has characteristic C

A also has characteristic D

Because A and B share C they must share D as well

 USEFUL TO LEGAL REASONING

Current cases get compared to new ones

Established precedent gets applied to new factual
scenarios
Critical to judicial opinions
 WHAT IS ARGUMENTATION?

An argument comprises data supporting or refuting

a claim.
Warrant - the connection between data and claim

Every claim has a qualification : valid(!), strong (!-),

credible (+), weak(-), and unknown (?)
Any claim is subject to rebuttal arguments

All claims, including input data, must be supported

 Argumentation in Law

An adequate theory of legal reasoning must provide

a sound basis.
Argumentation serves as a framework for a
practical definition of proof and proof procedure.
Burden of proof introduces a mechanism for
determining the outcome of an argument
THANK YOU