Customer Reviews

An Introduction to Law and Legal Reasoning

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During my first year of law school I asked my "legal research and writing" professor for an excellent and clearly written introduction to legal reasoning. He recommended Professor Burton's book.

This book will "demystify" all the bulls**t that first year professors want you to figure out for yourself. If all 1L's read this book, more law students will acquire a full skill-set during first year. Instead, the irrational legal educational system prefers to teach fear, insecurity, stress, and other unnecessary lessons that do not benefit law students, lawyers, or the public which we all aim to serve. Law professors shouldn't worry because they can still teach discipline, the art of inquiry, and HELP students LEARN.

Caveat: This book is not the Holy Grail. You still have to read all your cases and study for your exams. However, you will better understand "The Big Picture" and write an excellent exam if you take the time to understand what Professor Burton has clearly imparted in this book.

If you appreciate what I've said, feel free to ask me for more advice on how 1Ls and other law students can stop wasting time and reduce fear, insecurity, and stress.

Damien

in an easy-to-read short book. Burton has given the beginning student of law and layperson a very approachable introduction in plain language. A must for first-year law students or 1L's-to-be to put their learning into a context of legal theory. A good primer before moving onto reading Cardozo's The Nature of the Judicial Process and the Hart's The Concept of Law, both of which I'd recommend to 1L's interested in jurisprudence. Burton's primer is an introduction to how cases and rules relate in analogical and deductive legal reasoning; how legal reasons, conventions, policy, purposes, and not just rules alone, are used to help lawyers make predictions and judges make decisions. Finally, it concludes with a brief chapter on the legitimacy of our legal system. Core foundational ideas from which any law student begins to build his/her knowledge and understanding and then application of legal reasoning.

This is a well written book. However, there is a tendency amongst students who are bogged down on reading cases to pass over this sort of material too quickly, thus getting only a shallow apprehension of the subject. The author notes how words often do double and triple duty such that "You may want to join the bar but may be barred if you fail the bar and wind up tending bar or selling candy bars." Page 13. Thus, the author points out a critical feature of legal reasoning: "Legal rules characteristically require interpretation, which is an important part of legal reasoning." id. I recommend this book for honing those much needed skills in the practice of law and recommend that it be read slowly, not quickly. I also think a reader should consult Martin P. Golding's book "Legal Reasoning," Ruggero Aldisert's book "Logic for Lawyers," and Stephen Toulmin's book "The Uses of Argument." (Toulmin shows the uniqueness of legal reasoning in contrast with nonlegal reasoning).