A Primer on Legal Reasoning

A Primer on Legal Reasoning PDF Author: Michael Evan Gold
Publisher: ILR Press
ISBN: 1501728601
Category : Law
Languages : en
Pages : 361

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Book Description
After years of teaching law courses to undergraduate, graduate, and law students, Michael Evan Gold has come to believe that the traditional way of teaching – analysis, explanation, and example – is superior to the Socratic Method for students at the outset of their studies. In courses taught Socratically, even the most gifted students can struggle, and many others are lost in a fog for months. Gold offers a meta approach to teaching legal reasoning, bringing the process of argumentation to the fore. Using examples both from the law and from daily life, Gold's book will help undergraduates and first-year law students to understand legal discourse. The book analyzes and illustrates the principles of legal reasoning, such as logical deduction, analogies and distinctions, and application of law to fact, and even solves the mystery of how to spot an issue. In Gold's experience, students who understand the principles of analytical thinking are able to understand arguments, to evaluate and reply to them, and ultimately to construct sound arguments of their own.

Thinking Like a Lawyer

Thinking Like a Lawyer PDF Author: Frederick Schauer
Publisher: Harvard University Press
ISBN: 0674062485
Category : Law
Languages : en
Pages : 256

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Book 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.

A Primer on Legal Reasoning

A Primer on Legal Reasoning PDF Author: Michael Evan Gold
Publisher: Cornell University Press
ISBN: 150172861X
Category : Law
Languages : en
Pages : 302

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Book Description
After years of teaching law courses to undergraduate, graduate, and law students, Michael Evan Gold has come to believe that the traditional way of teaching – analysis, explanation, and example – is superior to the Socratic Method for students at the outset of their studies. In courses taught Socratically, even the most gifted students can struggle, and many others are lost in a fog for months. Gold offers a meta approach to teaching legal reasoning, bringing the process of argumentation to the fore. Using examples both from the law and from daily life, Gold's book will help undergraduates and first-year law students to understand legal discourse. The book analyzes and illustrates the principles of legal reasoning, such as logical deduction, analogies and distinctions, and application of law to fact, and even solves the mystery of how to spot an issue. In Gold's experience, students who understand the principles of analytical thinking are able to understand arguments, to evaluate and reply to them, and ultimately to construct sound arguments of their own.

An Introduction to Law and Legal Reasoning

An Introduction to Law and Legal Reasoning PDF Author: Steven J. Burton
Publisher: Aspen Publishing
ISBN: 1454822635
Category : Law
Languages : en
Pages : 270

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Book Description
Now in its Third Edition, An Introduction to Law and Legal Reasoning continues to be the ideal go-to for the first year law student. It is a short, practical book that introduces beginning law students and others to contemporary law and legal reasoning. By presenting these topics through various discussions of cases and examples, it provides students with a solid source to reference for years to come. A dependable, practical source, that: Covers analogical and deductive reasoning, as well as the roles of legal conventions, purposes, and policies in legal reasoning Discusses cases of varying difficulty to diversify the learning process Presents law and legal reasoning primarily through discussions of cases and examples that avoid the abstraction characteristic of most competing books Emphasizes the law as used in practice by lawyers and judges Provides an explicit and systematic introduction to law and legal reasoning Offers a source suitable for use as supplementary reading in any first year course, in legal research and writing courses, in paralegal courses, and in other settings This great new edition has been carefully updated to include: A new chapter, "Hardest Cases," that highlights cases notorious in the press Updates throughout that guarantee the most current legal information

Force of Logic

Force of Logic PDF Author: Stephen M. Rice
Publisher: Aspen Publishing
ISBN: 1601566107
Category : Law
Languages : en
Pages : 429

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Book Description
Have you ever read a legal opinion and come across an odd term like the fallacy of denying the antecedent, the fallacy of the undistributed middle, or the fallacy of the illicit process and wondered how you missed that in law school? You’re not alone: every day, lawyers make arguments that fatally trespass the rules of formal logic—without realizing it—because traditional legal education often overlooks imparting the practical wisdom of ancient philosophy as it teaches students how to “think like a lawyer.” In his book, The Force of Logic: Using Formal Logic as a Tool in the Craft of Legal Argument, lawyer and law professor Stephen M. Rice guides you to develop your powers of legal reasoning in a new way, through effective tips and tactics that will forever change the way you argue your cases. Rice contends that formal logic provides tools that help lawyers distinguish good arguments from bad ones and, moreover, that they are simple to learn and use. When you know how to recognize logical fallacies, you will not only strengthen your own arguments, but you will also be able to punch holes in your opponent’s—and that can make the difference between winning and losing. In this book, Rice builds on the theoretical foundation of formal logic by demonstrating logical fallacies through the use of anecdotes, examples, graphical illustrations, and exercises for you to try that are derived from common case documents. It is a hands-on primer that presents a practical approach for understanding and mastering the place of formal logic in the art of legal reasoning. Whether you are a lawyer, a judge, a scholar, or a student, The Force of Logic will inspire you to love legal argument, and appreciate its beauty and complexity in a brand new way.

Thinking Like a Lawyer

Thinking Like a Lawyer PDF Author: Kenneth J. Vandevelde
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 0429973888
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 350

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Book Description
Law students, law professors, and lawyers frequently refer to the process of "thinking like a lawyer," but attempts to analyze in any systematic way what is meant by that phrase are rare. In his classic book, Kenneth J. Vandevelde defines this elusive phrase and identifies the techniques involved in thinking like a lawyer. Unlike most legal writings, which are plagued by difficult, virtually incomprehensible language, this book is accessible and clearly written and will help students, professionals, and general readers gain important insight into this well-developed and valuable way of thinking. Updated for a new generation of lawyers, the second edition features a new chapter on contemporary perspectives on legal reasoning. A useful new appendix serves as a survival guide for current and prospective law students and describes how to apply the techniques in the book to excel in law school.

Learning Criminal Law as Advocacy Argument

Learning Criminal Law as Advocacy Argument PDF Author: John Delaney
Publisher: John Delaney Publications
ISBN: 0960851461
Category : Criminal law
Languages : en
Pages : 467

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Book Description
More than most other books about the criminal law, this presentation focuses on "Learning Criminal Law as Advocacy Argument." In each criminal-law topic, it presents in building-block form the limited repertoire of core issues and related arguments so that you can concentrate on learning and practicing those that your professor has stressed in class, in her materials, and on her old exams. You can know the issues on the exam before you go into the exam room.In each criminal-law topic there is a limited repertoire of core issues that must be identified and then resolved with advocacy argument. This pattern of issues and arguments arises from embedded and recurring factual patterns and the resulting criminal law performance of prosecutors, defense lawyers, and trial and appellate judges over decades and even centuries. Your professor presents only some of the core issues and related arguments from these repertoires in her course and on her criminal-law exam. Thus, you can systematically learn the set of core issues and arguments in each topic presented by your and know the issues before you go into the exam room. The exam then presents no surprises.What do you mean by resolving the core issues "with advocacy argument?"Identifying the core issues from your professor?s course is the first critical task. The second critical task is resolving these issues with advocacy argument. Advocacy argument is the lawyer?s single-minded marshalling of the relevant facts and doctrine that are necessary to resolve the identified issues in favor of either the prosecution or defense. This book helps you with both tasks: identifying the exam issues and resolving them.

Legal Reasoning and Objective Writing

Legal Reasoning and Objective Writing PDF Author: Daniel L. Barnett
Publisher: Aspen Publishing
ISBN: 1454874740
Category : Law
Languages : en
Pages : 404

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Book Description
Legal Reasoning and Objective Writing: A Comprehensive Approach is a textbook for the objective writing segment of a first-year legal writing class, written by two professors who have collaborated for many years, and who between them have over 50 years of experience teaching legal analysis and writing. The book, which is written in a conversational manner to engage students and put them at ease so that they grasp difficult concepts easily, uses a variety of short examples throughout the chapters as well as sample documents in the appendices with comprehensive annotations keyed to relevant portions of the book. Each chapter and accompanying optional closed-memo problem provide students with a sophisticated yet concrete step-by-step method to learn the analytical, organizational, and presentational skills necessary to convey legal analysis effectively. The accompanying optional introductory problem and related assignment materials use a flipped-class approach to guide students through the memo project independently, allowing teachers to adapt the problem to fit a variety of teaching sequences.

An Introduction to Legal Reasoning

An Introduction to Legal Reasoning PDF Author: Edward H. Levi
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Law
Languages : en
Pages : 104

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Book Description


Sharpening the Legal Mind

Sharpening the Legal Mind PDF Author: William Powers
Publisher: University of Texas Press
ISBN: 147732643X
Category : Law
Languages : en
Pages : 239

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Book Description
The way lawyers think about the law can seem deeply mysterious. They see nuance and meaning in statutes and implications in judicial opinions that are opaque to the rest of us. Accessible and thought provoking, Sharpening the Legal Mind explains how lawyers analyze the cases and controversies that come before the courts. Written by William Powers Jr., the former president of the University of Texas at Austin, this book is an authoritative introduction to the academic study of law and legal reasoning, including insights into the philosophy of law and the intellectual history of legal thought. Powers discusses the methods lawyers use to interpret the law, the relation between law and morals, and the role of courts in shaping the law. In eight chapters, he follows the historical debate on these issues and others through different generations and movements in American legal thought—formalism, realism, positivism—to critical legal studies and postmodern theory. The perfect read for anyone looking for a primer on legal reasoning, Sharpening the Legal Mind demystifies the debates and approaches to thinking like a lawyer that profoundly influence the rule of law in our lives.