First Principles of Business Law

8.1. The role of logic

When a case comes to court, we normally expect that the judge will decide the case in accordance with the law. That expectation is generally true, but it does not fully explain the complexities of decision making.  Using the law to decide cases is not a purely formal reasoning process which could be computerised and entrusted to a robot. It is a process that requires a deep level of human understanding, intuition, judgement and discretion.  But even so, Judges do used recognised ‘models’ or ‘forms’ of logic which you need to know about.  There are two possibilities to consider. 

Deductive logic is a process of reasoning from generalised statements (premises) towards a specific conclusion. 

The validity of the conclusion depends on the validity of the general premises.

Inductive logic is a process of reasoning in which specific information is considered as evidence for a conclusion drawn. 

The validity of the conclusion depends on the correctness and completeness of the information relied on.