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Pragmatism and Theory in English Law - College of Social Sciences ...

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14 <strong>Pragmatism</strong> <strong>and</strong> <strong>Theory</strong> <strong>in</strong> <strong>English</strong> <strong>Law</strong><br />

Indeed, <strong>in</strong> this, philosophical sense <strong>of</strong> the term, it is surely<br />

clear that "strict logic" is <strong>and</strong> must be part <strong>of</strong> the law <strong>of</strong><br />

Engl<strong>and</strong>. As Pr<strong>of</strong>essor MacCormick has demonstrated at<br />

some length judges do habitually use the methods <strong>of</strong><br />

deductive logic <strong>in</strong> the process <strong>of</strong> legal reason<strong>in</strong>g. 34 They do<br />

try to identify rules <strong>of</strong> law applicable to the case <strong>in</strong> h<strong>and</strong>,<br />

they do try to f<strong>in</strong>d the facts <strong>of</strong> the case <strong>in</strong> h<strong>and</strong>, <strong>and</strong> they do<br />

then subsume the facts under the law they have found to<br />

arrive at their conclusions. This is a perfectly regular <strong>and</strong><br />

everyday use <strong>of</strong> the processes <strong>of</strong> deductive logic. In this<br />

sense the laws <strong>of</strong> logic are no different from the laws <strong>of</strong><br />

mathematics <strong>of</strong> which the judges also make regular use, for<br />

example, <strong>in</strong> the assessment <strong>of</strong> damages. Not only do judges<br />

regularly use such elementary arithmetic techniques as<br />

add<strong>in</strong>g up items <strong>of</strong> damages, <strong>and</strong> reduc<strong>in</strong>g them by specified<br />

percentages where they f<strong>in</strong>d contributory negligence,<br />

they also perform more sophisticated mathematical exercises<br />

such as discount<strong>in</strong>g a sum <strong>of</strong> money which would have<br />

been payable <strong>in</strong> the future <strong>in</strong> order to arrive at its present<br />

day value. And <strong>in</strong> the process they have had to learn about<br />

relatively complex matters such as the <strong>in</strong>ter-relationship<br />

between <strong>in</strong>terest rates, <strong>in</strong>flation rates <strong>and</strong> the appropriate<br />

discount rates to use for this purpose. I shall give some<br />

examples <strong>of</strong> this k<strong>in</strong>d <strong>of</strong> th<strong>in</strong>g <strong>in</strong> my next lecture.<br />

So it is not simply a matter <strong>of</strong> recognis<strong>in</strong>g that the word<br />

"logic" is <strong>of</strong>ten used <strong>in</strong> different senses by judges <strong>and</strong> lawyers;<br />

it is also necessary to appreciate that even the strictest<br />

<strong>of</strong> strict logic can be "used"<strong>in</strong> two different senses. It can be<br />

<strong>and</strong> is very regularly "used" <strong>in</strong> the sense <strong>of</strong> be<strong>in</strong>g applied, as<br />

<strong>in</strong> the many examples which Pr<strong>of</strong>essor MacCormick gives<br />

<strong>in</strong> his discussion <strong>of</strong> this question. But <strong>in</strong> these cases the real<br />

3 * Op. tit.pp. 19-32.

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