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3 - Legal Reasoning

from Part I - General Theory

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  15 June 2020

By
Martha C. Nussbaum
Edited by
John Tasioulas
John Tasioulas
Affiliation:
King's College London
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Summary

Legal reasoning is a vast topic. In principle, it includes the reasoning of lawyers, judges, and even lawmakers, in every area of law, from family law to contracts, from criminal law to constitutional adjudication. And it is thoroughly global, encompassing enormously different national and regional understandings. Bringing the topic down to a size compatible with saying anything useful means leaving out most of it. Accordingly, this chapter will be confined to countries with a common law legal system, and its primary focus will be judicial reasoning. Most of its examples will be drawn from just two areas of law, criminal and constitutional law. Its argument will focus on the philosophical underpinnings of an ongoing debate between defenders of common law legal reasoning and a variety of utilitarian challengers.

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The Cambridge Companion to the Philosophy of Law , pp. 59 - 77
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2020

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