Download or read book A Primer on Legal Reasoning written by Michael Evan Gold and published by ILR Press. This book was released on 2018-11-15 with total page 361 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 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.
Download or read book Thinking Like a Lawyer written by Frederick Schauer and published by Harvard University Press. This book was released on 2012-04-02 with total page 256 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 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.
Download or read book Force of Logic written by Stephen M. Rice and published by Aspen Publishing. This book was released on 2017-05-03 with total page 429 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 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.
Download or read book A Primer on Legal Reasoning written by Michael Evan Gold and published by Cornell University Press. This book was released on 2018-11-15 with total page 302 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 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.
Download or read book An Introduction to Law and Legal Reasoning written by Steven J. Burton and published by Wolters Kluwer Law & Business. This book was released on 2007-01-10 with total page 212 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 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.
Download or read book Thinking Like a Lawyer written by Kenneth J. Vandevelde and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2018-04-19 with total page 350 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 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.
Download or read book Learning Criminal Law as Advocacy Argument written by John Delaney and published by John Delaney Publications. This book was released on 2004 with total page 467 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 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.
Download or read book Legal Reasoning and Objective Writing written by Daniel L. Barnett and published by Aspen Publishing. This book was released on 2016-02-29 with total page 404 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 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.
Download or read book Sharpening the Legal Mind written by William Powers and published by University of Texas Press. This book was released on 2023-02-14 with total page 239 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 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.
Download or read book Legal Argument written by James A. Gardner and published by LexisNexis/Matthew Bender. This book was released on 2007 with total page 196 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Legal Argument: The Structure and Language of Effective Advocacy is a full-featured guide designed primarily for law students in research, writing, analysis and trial advocacy classes and moot court programs. Inside you'll find detailed explanations of how lawyers construct legal arguments and practical guidelines to the process of molding the raw materials of litigation--cases, statutes, testimony, documents, common sense--into instruments of persuasive advocacy. You'll also find writing guidelines that show you how to present a well-constructed legal argument in writing in a way that legal decision makers will find persuasive. The centerpiece of this indispensable work is its syllogism-based step-by-step method, designed to walk the advocate through the process of crafting a winning argument. Intuitive organization presents the material in five parts: Part I sets out a general methodology for constructing legal arguments. Part II focuses more closely on the construction of persuasive, well-grounded legal premises, and covers the effective integration of legal doctrine and evidence into the argument's structure. Part III shows how to put the method to work by giving two detailed examples of the construction of complete legal arguments from scratch. Part IV provides a detailed protocol for reducing well-constructed legal arguments to written form, along with a concrete illustration of that process. It also provides concrete advice on how to recognize and avoid a host of common mistakes in the written presentation of legal arguments. Part V moves from the basics into more advanced techniques of persuasive legal argument, including rhetorical tactics like framing and emphasis, how to respond to arguments, maintaining professionalism in advocacy, and the ethical limits of argument.
Download or read book An Introduction to Legal Reasoning written by Edward H. Levi and published by . This book was released on 1993 with total page 104 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Learning Legal Reasoning written by John Delaney and published by John Delaney Publications. This book was released on 1987 with total page 152 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Publisher description: This widely used book in many printings begins with answers to forty commonly asked questions of first-year law students. It specifies a six-step approach to briefing a case with specific guidelines for accomplishing each step. The process of briefing cases is then demonstrated with excellent and poor briefs of increasing complexity. Emphasis is placed initially on the techniques of briefing as an introduction to the learning of legal reasoning, the first priority of the first year of law school. In addition, the book also demonstrates the relevance of more advanced modes of legal reasoning, including positivist, pragmatic, policy oriented, natural-law and other perspectives applied in decoding and understanding cases. In its introduction of jurisprudential perspectives, Learning Legal Reasoning transcends the typical technical/positivist orientation of most first-year materials.
Download or read book The Force of Logic written by Stephen M. Rice and published by Aspen Publishing. This book was released on 2017-05-03 with total page 290 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 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.
Download or read book Effective Lawyering written by Austen L. Parrish and published by . This book was released on 2007 with total page 188 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book is for law students and practitioners who want to learn, or be reminded of, the fundamentals of legal writing and oral advocacy. Effective Lawyering concisely describes useful, yet often neglected, writing techniques. The book has pithy discussions of:(1) ways to avoid recurring, yet frequently overlooked, writing problems;(2) sensible approaches to writing common legal documents; and(3) methods for preparing an oral argument.In addition, it provides the reader with a series of checklists to turn to when undertaking a writing project or preparing for oral argument. The authors have designed the book for practicing attorneys as well as law students. The book is an ideal supplement for first-year and advanced legal writing courses, for upper-division skills courses, and for students participating in law journals or moot court programs. Short and to-the-point, the book's unique check-list approach will help law students and practitioners improve their writing methodically.
Download or read book The American Legal System for Foreign Lawyers written by Peter T. Wendel and published by . This book was released on 2009-09-30 with total page 228 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Peter T. Wendel has taught academic success workshops at over thirty-five law schools throughout the country. In Deconstructing Legal Analysis: A 1L Primer, he provides a variety of time-tested techniques-including a unique model for visualizing legal analysis-to teach students how to think like lawyers and take law school exams. Deconstructing Legal Analysis: A 1L Primer features: a unique, visual pedagogical method that illustrates a relational analysis of facts, rules, and public policy an interactive approach that consistently encourages students to write down their answers to carefully guided questions a great teaching case, Pierson v. Post, showing how a layperson reads a case as compared to how a lawyer would read the same case useful templates and methods for legal analysis and essay-exam writing, such as IRAC and IRRAC exam-taking tips and guidance that emphasize flexibility, rather than a formulaic approach If experience is the best teacher, then Deconstructing Legal Analysis is an essential for academic success in law school.
Download or read book Legal Reasoning and Legal Writing written by Richard K. Neumann and published by Aspen Publishers. This book was released on 2009 with total page 564 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Sixth Edition of this respected and popular text remains grounded in the premise that legal reasoning and legal writing are best learned when they are taught together. Building on that foundation, Neumann continues to offer complete, clear, and timely coverage of how to form a legal argument and how to write an effective legal memorandum. Streamlined in its Sixth Edition, Legal Reasoning and Legal Writing features : comprehensive coverage of legal writing: the office memo the motion memo the appellate brief eminently readable text, including an exceptionally lucid explanation of the reasoning behind the proof of a conclusion of law a thoughtful treatment of all aspects of legal reasoning student-friendly instruction on the process of writing, The mechanics of style, and grammar up-to-date examples and exercises sample documents in the Appendices, including an office memo, motion memo, and two appellate briefs Highly regarded author Richard K. Neumann, Jr. presents, In tandem, smart, in-depth coverage of legal writing and legal reasoning, supported by examples, writing samples, and extraordinarily clear and lucid exposition.
Download or read book How to Do Things with Rules written by William Twining and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2010-05-20 with total page 451 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: New to English law? Need to know how rules are made, interpreted and applied? This popular and well-established textbook will show you how. It simplifies legal method by combining examples with an account of rules in general: the who, what, why and how of interpretation. Starting with standpoint and context, it identifies factors that give rise to doubts about the interpretation of a rule and recommends a systematic approach to analysing those factors. Questions and exercises integrated in the text and on the accompanying website will help you to develop skills in reading, interpreting and arguing about legal and other rules. The text is fully updated on developments in the legislative process and the judicial interpretation of statutes and precedent. It includes a new chapter on 'The European Dimension' reflecting the changes brought about by the Human Rights Act 1998.
