Interpreting Law Through Syllogism

The assignment discusses the importance of logical reasoning and syllogism in legal arguments. It emphasizes that a good lawyer must interpret laws effectively by choosing the right argument and presenting it in a logical and coherent manner. The text also touches on the concept of logical fallacies and how they can be detected through syllogistic form. The author uses real-life examples to illustrate their point, including a scenario where a driver who experiences sudden faints is deemed not negligent for any resulting injuries.

Answers
1. When it comes to logical as well as legal reasoning, the invention of syllogism, I reckon, is
one of the most profound and most important applicable aspect of the law. Having said that,
it is not always the case that an argument would make a complete sense or able to get the
point across1. So, the legal argument must exhibit a pristine logic and while doing so, any
legal argument should adhere to the form of fairly conceivable logic syllogism. It is also very
important to note that such syllogistic approach can sometimes get intertwined with the
logical fallacies. In light of that Immanuel Kant once famously remarked – “Fallacious and
misleading arguments are most easily detected if set out in correct syllogistic form”.
The effectiveness of an argument, most of the time in the court of law, is determined by the
ability of the lawyers as to how do they interpret the laws. This interpretation of the law can
take any possible argument selection on the part of the lawyers2. They have to choose a way
out to make their arguments heard and reacted to so that their efforts would not fall on the
deaf ears - so to speak. Now, I believe that any law cannot be interpreted in such a manner
that it would be expressing exactly opposite of what the law itself says. This is what I base
my premise of syllogism on.
“The drivers who slip into sudden and unpredicted faints are not negligent for the
injuries thus caused by this”.
“Thomas Anderson had unanticipated spell of lapse and went into sleep once during a
meeting in his office. After sometime he again slipped into sleep while driving car, which
ultimately resulted in an accident”.
“In a third similar unanticipated incident, he was declared as not negligent”.
1 Alan H. Goldman, 'Legal Reasoning As A Model For Moral Reasoning' (1989) 8 Law and Philosophy.
2 W. B. GALLIE, 'I.—AN INTERPRETATION OF CAUSAL LAWS' (1939) XLVIII Mind.