The Logic of Precedent: Constraint, Freedom, and Common Law Reasoning - Hardcover

Horty, John

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 100935650X ISBN 13: 9781009356503

Publisher: Cambridge University Press, 2025

Synopsis

Unlike statutory law, which relies on the explicit formulation of rules, common law is thought to emerge from a complex doctrine of precedential constraint, according to which decisions in earlier cases constrain later courts while still allowing these courts the freedom to address new situations in creative ways. Although this doctrine is applied by legal practitioners on a daily basis, it has proved to be considerably more difficult to develop an adequate theoretical account of the doctrine itself. Drawing on recent work in legal theory, as well as AI and law, this book develops a new account of precedential constraint and the balance achieved in the common law between constraint and freedom. This account, which involves construction of a group priority ordering among reasons, is then applied to other topics including the semantics of open-textured predicates and the practice of making exceptions to general rules.

About this title

About the Author

John Horty is Professor of Philosophy at the University of Maryland. He is the author of three previous books as well as papers on a variety of topics in logic, philosophy, artificial intelligence, and law. His most recent book is Reasons as Defaults (2012).

Edition details

• Publisher: Cambridge University Press
• Publication date: 2025
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 100935650X
• ISBN 13: 9781009356503
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 276