Logic for Lawyers: A Guide to Clear Legal Thinking

by Ruggero J. Aldisert

Book Overview

Developing good legal reasoning habits is essential to a quality law practice. Judge Aldisert examines legal thinking from a variety of perspectives to help guide lawyers through appropriate reasoning... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 087632636X
• ISBN13: 9780876326367
• Release Date: January 1989
• Publisher: Clark Boardman
• Length: 257 Pages
• Weight: 0.92 lbs.

Customer Reviews

Law School Useful

I have "invested" in many books to help with the law school experience. Wish I had discovered this one first. Clears up a lot of questions about what the cases mean and how to understand the logic of the law. Should be required reading for first semester in law school.

Great book, but taking a logic course would help

I'm a former legal researcher at a law firm and incoming 1L student at The Ohio State University Moritz College of Law. This book was on my reading list and I must say, it is an outstanding book on the logical process attorneys use on a daily basis. The book is clear and concise, offering in-depth commentary on certain logic terms, that even the average layman can understand somewhat. The book also contains a great source of humorous passages, that help ease the strain of learning a process, that can be somewhat mundane at times. However, once you have a full grasp on the concepts explained in the book, every argument from thereon, becomes a collection of categorical syllogisms that you can dissect and understand. The only qualm, is that one should have a logic background, if at all possible. I took a logic class in undergrad, so this book was a refresher in some areas and explained how to apply those unearthed principles to the law. As previously mentioned, an average layman can understand some of the concepts, but in the more advanced areas of the book, having a background in logic would help tremendously and preclude the book from sounding too much like a text/casebook.

Helps to burn off the fog that law profs relish creating

I can't say it any better than in Aldisert's own words in his chapter on the Socratic Method: "An understanding of the principles of deduction and induction will significantly assist the student in the daily exercise [i.e. the Socratic Method used by law professors in the classroom]. To lack this understanding is to be substantially, if not totally, disadvantaged."

Highly recommended

The reviewer from San Diego has it spot on. I wish this would have been required reading in law school. It would have been infinitely helpful in dealing with the professors' hide-the-ball obfuscatory nonsense. Senior Judge Aldisert has obviously spent a long time contemplating the subject, thus it will be well worth your time and effort to not just read this book, but to closely study it. Aside from its great value in assisting legal studies, a side benefit of the book is that you'll probably find that you start spotting all sorts of logical fallacies in the world at large. This can be both good and bad, of course. Good for sharpness of mind, bad for romantic/familial relationships. We cannot effectively deal with our loved ones through the strict scrutiny of a legal lens. Be sure to take it off when appropriate. But I'm getting off track here. In short, if you acquire this book before or during law school, consider yourself fortunate.

How to Think Like a Good Lawyer

Judge Aldisert's book cogently explains the fundamental role that logic plays in law. For the law student (or pre-law student), it provides a shortcut to understanding the basics of legal reasoning, including the common law doctrine of precedent, identifying weaknesses in legal arguments, and fashioning winning arguments through syllogisms. The rest of your law school classmates may flail in the darkness of the Socratic Method, but this book illuminates what the prof is attempting to do.I'm an attorney and did not have the benefit of Judge Aldisert's wisdom until after graduation. But he explained many murky concepts that I had only vaguely understood. Before reading the book, I could tell you that one argument was better than another; now I can put my finger on why. This book is for anyone who wants to improve his or her legal reasoning skills.