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