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Legal Reasoning

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Introduction to Law
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Abstract

Legal reasoning has several aspects. On the one hand it is necessary to determine which rules can play a role in legal arguments, which rules are legal rules. The formal sources of law, such as legislation, treaties and case law, play a central role in this connection. On the other hand it is necessary to determine how legal rules lead to consequences in concrete cases. How does reasoning with legislation, treaties and precedents work? This chapter briefly introduces to the role of sources in legal reasoning and to the techniques of legal reasoning with rules and cases, including canons of interpretation and principles for handling rule conflicts.

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Recommended Literature

  • Schauer F (1991) Playing by the rules. Clarendon, Oxford

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  • Raz J (2009) Legal positivism and the sources of law. In: Raz J (ed) The authority of law. Essays on law and morality, 2nd edn. Clarendon, Oxford, pp 37–52

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Hage, J. (2017). Legal Reasoning. In: Hage, J., Waltermann, A., Akkermans, B. (eds) Introduction to Law. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-57252-9_2

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-57252-9_2

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-319-57251-2

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-57252-9

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