Analogy and Exemplary Reasoning in Legal Discourse

This book brings together contributions from leading figures in legal studies on analogy and related forms of reasoning in the law. Analogical reasoning-which relies on the concept of two different things being in some way like each other-is hugely important not just in the practice of law, but it is nonetheless strongly contested. This volume raises key questions like: What is the logical, argumentative, rhetorical, or just heuristic force of analogy in law? Is analogy really different from extensive interpretation, reasoning by precedent and appeal to paradigm?

Hendrik Kaptein is associate professor of jurisprudence at Leiden University. He published widely on legal argumentation, see for example Legal evidence and proof: statistics, stories, logic (Ashgate, 2009, with H. Prakken & B. Verheij) Bastiaan D. van der Velden (1970) obtained his PhD in 2004 with a dissertation on the historical development of legislation on the use of Frisian in the Netherlands (Waar gaan wij heen met het Fries?). From 2006 to 2009 he was associate professor at the University of the Netherlands Antilles in Curaçao. His legal history of Curaçao was published in 2011: Ik lach met Grotius, en alle prullen van boeken (Amsterdam: SWP). He is currently a lecturer at the Open University where he teaches legal history and wrote a textbook for this course.