Thinking like a lawyer
Subtitle: a new introduction to legal reasoning
By: Frederick Schauer.
Publisher: Harvard University Press
Published: 2009
Place of publication: Cambridge, Mass
Language: eng
Number of pages: 239
Subjects: Law -- Methodology
Description: This primer on legal reasoning is aimed at law students and upper-level undergraduates. But it is also an original exposition of basic legal concepts that scholars and lawyers will find stimulating. It covers such topics as rules, precedent, authority, analogical reasoning, the common law, statutory interpretation, legal realism, judicial opinions, legal facts, and burden of proof. In addressing the question whether legal reasoning is distinctive, Frederick Schauer emphasizes the formality and rule-dependence of law.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references and index.
Table of contents: title: Is there legal reasoning; title: Rules in law and elsewhere; title: The practice and problems of precedent; title: Authority and authorities; title: The use and abuse of analogies; title: The idea of the common law; title: The challenge of legal realism; title: The interpretation of statutes; title: The judicial opinion; title: Making law with rules and standards; title: Law and fact; title: The burden of proof and its cousins.