Postgraduate Course: Reasoning with Precedent (LAWS11334)
Course Outline
| School | School of Law |
College | College of Humanities and Social Science |
| Course type | Standard |
Availability | Not available to visiting students |
| Credit level (Normal year taken) | SCQF Level 11 (Postgraduate) |
Credits | 20 |
| Home subject area | Law |
Other subject area | None |
| Course website |
None |
Taught in Gaelic? | No |
| Course description | This course provides students with the opportunity to analyse in detail the practice of justifying legal claims and conclusions by reference to precedent. Students will discuss judicial cases and other instances of appeal to legal precedent (e.g. motions), identifying the ways in which precedent is used in legal reasoning and some common mistakes of arguments presented as grounded on precedent. The course will examine the relationship between precedent-based arguments and both:
(i) some central aspects of legal reasoning (including deductive arguments);
(ii) common types and canons of legal argumentation (including coherence-type arguments, arguments a fortiori, arguments a contrario, and consequentialist arguments).
Students who take the course will thus (a) further develop their ability to engage critically with legal precedent in the context of legal reasoning in general, and judicial reasoning in particular; (b) further develop their ability to articulate and assess sound precedent-based legal arguments; (c) further develop an understanding of the moral and political dimensions of precedent-based reasoning in law.
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Entry Requirements (not applicable to Visiting Students)
| Pre-requisites |
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Co-requisites | |
| Prohibited Combinations | |
Other requirements | None |
| Additional Costs | None |
Course Delivery Information
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| Delivery period: 2014/15 Semester 1, Not available to visiting students (SS1)
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Learn enabled: No |
Quota: 25 |
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Web Timetable |
Web Timetable |
| Course Start Date |
15/09/2014 |
| Breakdown of Learning and Teaching activities (Further Info) |
Total Hours:
200
(
Seminar/Tutorial Hours 20,
Programme Level Learning and Teaching Hours 4,
Directed Learning and Independent Learning Hours
176 )
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| Additional Notes |
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| Breakdown of Assessment Methods (Further Info) |
Written Exam
0 %,
Coursework
100 %,
Practical Exam
0 %
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| No Exam Information |
Learning Outcomes
On completion of this course, the student will be able to:
1. Knowledge and Understanding:
This course¿s primary aim is to develop and hone the students¿ critical ability to reconstruct, analyse, and produce legal arguments. These are skills of general application in legal practice; they are not related to any specific set of legal sources. Therefore the course will not introduce new sources, nor will it be based upon any set of sources grouped by subject-area or branch of law. Rather, it will draw on multiple materials from diverse bodies of legal sources.
2. Skills and abilities in Research and Enquiry:
The abilities the course will help students develop (ie the abilities to reconstruct, analyse and produce legal arguments) are a crucial element in legal research and enquiry.
3. Skills and abilities in Personal and Intellectual Autonomy:
The course aims at instilling in students the ability and self-confidence to assess and produce valid and sound arguments.
4. Skills and abilities in Communication:
The foremost requirement in communication (which is not merely rhetorical) is clarity in the construction and presentation of whatever argument one is putting forth. This course is focused on developing that skill.
5. Technical/practical skills:
The ability to exchange and assess arguments in legal contexts (including consultancy and litigation). |
Assessment Information
| Final essay (100%) |
Special Arrangements
| None |
Additional Information
| Academic description |
Not entered |
| Syllabus |
The analysis of precedent-based reasoning envisaged in this course will cover topics of the following kind:
- Precedent as a source of law
- Deductive arguments in appeals to precedent
- Precedents and arguments a fortiori
- Precedents and arguments a contrario
- Precedents and coherence-based arguments
- Precedent and consequentialist arguments
- Common fallacies in the use of precedent
- The use of precedent as a rhetorical tool
Not all topics will necessarily be addressed every year, and the emphasis placed on different topics (eg number of seminars dedicated to each topic) will likely vary from year to year.
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| Transferable skills |
Not entered |
| Reading list |
Not entered |
| Study Abroad |
Not entered |
| Study Pattern |
Not entered |
| Keywords | Not entered |
Contacts
| Course organiser | Dr Claudio Michelon
Tel:
Email: c.michelon@ed.ac.uk |
Course secretary | |
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