Legal reasoning – the analytic nature of legal reasoning—in relation to the political and societal contexts and the political importance of sound legal reasoning can be said to be the core content of Lief Carter’s book “Reason in Law.” Carter explains the dynamic nature of law and the essential nature of legal reasoning, which requires judges to examine facts in a case taking into consideration the legal rules, precedents, normative values and social realities that would be applicable to the case in question. Carter’s pedagogic approach to the text – providing detailed discussions on the historical and theoretical framework and concepts of legal reasoning followed by analysis of Illustrative Cases – makes it an essential and highly helpful text for students in both introductory and advanced courses on law, legal reasoning, political science, law and politics as well as anyone interested in the societal and constitutional functions of law. Essentially hermeneutical and philosophical, the book also presents the possibilities of legal language, rules and precedents in influencing the process of political and social change, making it an essential reference to practicing lawyers and judges as well.
Analytical in his approach to the subject, Carter
organizes the book into six main chapters -- 1.
What Legal Reasoning Is, and Why It Matters; 2.
Change and Stability In Legal Reasoning; 3. Statutory
Interpretation; 4. Common Law; 5. Interpreting
the United States Constitution; 6. Law and Politics,
to introduce the reader to the intricacies of
judicial politics. Through the course of these
chapters, Carter presents the historical roots
and evolution of law in the United States, the
influence of British legal history on American
law, enabling the readers to understand the nature
and intricacies of law and legal reasoning in
influencing political and societal change in the
United States.
The first chapter What Legal Reasoning Is, And Why It Matters after presenting an overview of law and politics, defines law, legal reasoning, attempts to classify law, categorize official legal texts, presents the problems that law addresses and provides the choices offered by legal reasoning. In second chapter Change And Stability In Legal Reasoning Carter analyses the unpredictability in law and examines the process of reasoning from words and six-stage evaluation of reasoning from examples, how it facilitates legal change and how Stare Decisis functions as a stabilizing and clarifying element in law. The third chapter – Statutory Interpretation— explains the meaning and relevance of statutes, addresses the common mistakes committed by judges in interpreting statues, the significance of words and intent in the statues, the centrality of statutory purpose and clarifies the appropriate judicial approach to statutory interpretation. [Carter, 1998]
The fourth chapter -- Common Law-- deliberates on the origin and present state of common law in American judicial system, the principles of reasoning in common law and establishes the need for keeping common law tradition alive. and fifth Interpreting the United States Constitution. In the fifth chapter-- Interpreting The United States Constitution—Carter introduces the conventional legal reasoning in interpreting the Constitution, the intent and purpose of constitutional provisions, alternative approaches to constitutional reasoning and political constraints on the court. In the sixth chapter --Law And Politics --Carter reiterates the imperativeness of legal reasoning as a public language and impartial judgment in eliciting trust in the citizens on the polity. [Carter, 1998]
Every chapter of the book presents an illustrative
case followed by challenging questions on the
case and hints for further thought, prompting
the reader to apply the knowledge he had gained
in the course of the chapter as well as the preceding
chapters. The Appendix of the book, Introduction
To Legal Procedure And Terminology, presents
the legal terms and explanations as well as detailed
index including index of the cases discussed in
the book. [Carter,
1998]
In the introductory sections of the book itself, Carter presents his central idea of the crucial relationship of law, legal reasoning, politics and society. He defines politics as “those things people do in communities in order to minimize threats to their well being,” and law “is a language by which we constantly reconstruct our communities” [Carter, 1998, p. 2 ] According to him legal reasoning refers ... “to the political action of justifying the judicial outcome to the polity. Legal reasoning is justification that we can and do evaluate and debate..” [Carter, 1998, p. vii.] He presents legal reasoning as a crucial bonding agent that would enhance the trust of citizens in the government and society.
After providing a brief overview of law and politics and introducing the reader to important questions about ethics and normative issues that needs to be considered in reasoning and judging a case, Carter continuously provokes the reader to analyze the relationship of law and politics, while constantly reminding the fact that legal choices take place in a changing political and societal context. This challenges the reader in his analysis of the relationship between law and politics, effectively enabling the reader to actively participate in understanding and deliberating on the very important, at times complex theories and concepts of legal reasoning. The educational effectiveness of the book lies in the fact that it not only helps in understanding the concepts of legal reasoning in diverse areas of private and public law but also helps in understanding the process of legal reasoning in relation to the political and social context of a society. |