Law and Philosophy Library- Methods of Legal Reasoning

Anyone reflecting on the methodology of legal reasoning faces a difficult task. Perhaps the most striking difficulty concerning the methodology of legal argument is the heated debate between jurists, legal theorists and philosophers of law that has been recurring since at least nineteenth century.

The book attempts to describe and criticize four methods used in legal practice, legal dogmatics and legal theory: logic, analysis, argumentation and hermeneutics. Apart from a presentation of basic ideas connected with the above mentioned methods, the essays contained in this book seek to answer questions concerning the assumptions standing behind these methods, the limits of using them and their usefulness in the practice and theory of law. A specific feature of the book is that in one study four different, sometimes competing concepts of legal method are discussed. The panorama, sketched like this, allows one to reflect deeply on the questions concerning the methodological conditioning of legal science and the existence of a unique, specific legal method. The authors argue that there exists no such method. They claim that the methodologies presented in the book may serve as a basis for constructing a coherent and useful conception of legal thinking. Any such conception, however,must recognize its own assumptions and limitations, resulting from adopting a specific philosophical stance.