4 Wm. Mitchell J. L. & P. 6
By: Chad Snyder[Y]
Why.
That, I learned in one of the more productive hours of my law school experience, is the answer any lawyer should be ready to give in support of any legal argument.[1] And, as one of my fellow students learned the hard way in one of those hard-to-watch Socratic moments, “because another case says so” is not always or even often a good enough “why.” Common law, by its nature, evolves. So it is not enough to rest on the argument that a court should apply your proposed rule because it happens to be the rule that has been applied before. A lawyer making an argument or, though my professor did not say so, a judge issuing a decision, should be able to articulate a reason the legal rule she advocates should be adopted or maintained, and why it functions better than the alternative or alternatives. Read the rest of this entry »
