PHIL 2050 Lecture Notes - Lecture 6: Legal Realism

• School: York University
• Department: Philosophy
• Course: PHIL 2050
• Professor: Susan Dimock

Document Summary

Conventional legal reasoning: judges apply the law, judges are passive, bound by past decisions of the (cid:272)ourt(cid:859)s precedents. Changes to the law are corrections and not alterations. Only legislators are legitimately allowed to make law. If the premises are correct and you accept it, therefore, you have to accept the conclusion of those premises. Adjudication under conventional views: reason is logical, deductive and formal. There is no law until judges made a decision on the case. Judges are not impartial: therefore, no law the judges can apply. Statues and other legislation are not law until they are used in a decision. La(cid:449)s are o(cid:374)ly la(cid:449)s (cid:449)he(cid:374) they are applied to (cid:862)li(cid:448)i(cid:374)g situatio(cid:374)s(cid:863) (cid:271)y judges. We only know what statues are until judges have applied it and discussed it. From lecture slide: study of law = study of (cid:858)systematized predictions(cid:859) of what courts will do. Holmes ask if this is an enforceable contract or not.