Abstract
The two most important kinds of reasons to be found in judicial opinions in common law cases are authority reasons and substantive reasons. Common law authority reasons consist primarily of appeals to the binding force of previously decided cases — to precedent. Such authority reasons derive their justif icatory force from two main sources: (1) the substantive reasons behind the precedent itself, and (2) the applicability of further substantive reasons that support the doctrine of binding precedent.
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© 1984 D. Reidel Publishing Company
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Summers, R.S. (1984). Goal Reasons in Common Law Cases — are They Predictive?. In: Peczenik, A., Lindahl, L., Roermund, B.V. (eds) Theory of Legal Science. Synthese Library, vol 176. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-009-6481-5_27
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-009-6481-5_27
Publisher Name: Springer, Dordrecht
Print ISBN: 978-94-009-6483-9
Online ISBN: 978-94-009-6481-5
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