- Preface
- 1. Is There Legal Reasoning?
- 2. Rules—in Law and Elsewhere
- 2.1 Of Rules in General
- 2.2 The Core and the Fringe
- 2.3 The Generality of Rules
- 2.4 The Formality of Law
- 3. The Practice and Problems of Precedent
- 3.1 Precedent in Two Directions
- 3.2 Precedent—The Basic Idea
- 3.3 A Strange Idea
- 3.4 On Identifying a Precedent
- 3.5 On the Force of Precedent—Overruling, Distinguishing, and Other Types of Avoidance
- 4. Authority and Authorities
- 4.1 The Idea of Authority
- 4.2 On Binding and So-Called Persuasive Authority
- 4.3 Why Real Authority Need Not be “Binding”
- 4.4 Can There Be Prohibited Authorities?
- 4.5 How Authorities Become Authoritative
- 5. The Use and Abuse of Analogies
- 5.1 On Distinguishing Precedent from Analogy
- 5.2 On the Determination of Similarity
- 5.3 The Skeptical Challenge
- 5.4 Analogy and the Speed of Legal Change
- 6. The Idea of the Common Law
- 6.1 Some History and a Comparison
- 6.2 On the Nature of the Common Law
- 6.3 How Does the Common Law Change?
- 6.4 Is the Common Law Law?
- 6.5 A Short Tour of the Realm of Equity
- 7. The Challenge of Legal Realism
- 7.1 Do Rules and Precedents Decide cases?
- 7.2 Does Doctrine Constrain Even if It Does Not Direct?
- 7.3 An Empirical Claim
- 7.4 Realism and the Role of the Lawyer
- 7.5 Critical Legal Studies and Realism in Modern Dress
- 8. The Interpretation of Statutes
- 8.1 Statutory Interpretation in the Regulatory State
- 8.2 The Role of the Text
- 8.3 When the Text Provides No Answer
- 8.4 When the Text Provides a Bad Answer
- 8.5 The Canons of Statutory Construction
- 9. The Judicial Opinion
- 9.1 The Causes and Consequences of Judicial Opinions
- 9.2 Giving Reasons
- 9.3 On Holding and Dicta
- 9.4 The Declining Frequency of Opinions
- 10. Making Law with Rules and Standards
- 10.1 The Basic Distinction
- 10.2 Rules, Standards, and the Question of Discretion
- 10.3 Stability and Flexibility
- 10.4 Rules and Standards in Judicial Opinions
- 11. Law and Fact
- 11.1 On the Idea of a Fact
- 11.2 Determining Facts at Trial—The Law of Evidence and Its Critics
- 11.3 Facts and the Appellate Process
- 12. The Burden of Proof and Its Cousins
- 12.1 The Burden of Proof
- 12.2 Presumptions
- 12.3 Deference and the Allocation of Decision-Making Responsibility
- Index
Thinking Like a Lawyer
A New Introduction to Legal Reasoning
Product Details
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$25.00 • £21.95 • €22.95
ISBN 9780674062481
Publication Date: 04/16/2012
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