An Introduction to Law and Legal Reasoning

Abstract

It is obvious that lawyers think about law. It may seem to be equally obvious that the first question must be: what is law? In fact, as it happens, practising lawyers seldom if ever feel the need to ask themselves this question. They ask the much more specific question: what is the law relating to this particular situation? Nevertheless, the first and more general question is still worth asking, because it will lead you to consider some points of view which will inform your understanding of how law works, and of how lawyers handle their sources.