Element 2, a third category delineated by Element 3 and a fourth category
delineated by Element 4.
Assume now that a set of facts contains a fact that falls within the category
delineated by Element 1, a fact that falls within the category delineated by
Element 2, a fact that falls within the category delineated by Element 3 and a
fact that falls within the category delineated by Element 4. In this case the rule
applies to the set of facts because the set contains facts that satisfy each of the
four elements. Conveniently these facts can be designated in a corresponding
manner to the categories and elements, so that Fact 1 is the label for a fact that
falls within or satisfies Element 1, Fact 2 the label for a fact that falls within and
satisfies Element 2 and so on. Thus Facts 1-4 are the labels for facts that fall
within and in consequence satisfy Elements 1-4.
Assume that this set of facts also contains other facts that fall within other
categories. These facts can be labelled Fact 5, Fact 6 and so on to the last
fact, Fact n, with these other facts collectively being designated Facts 5-n.
In these circumstances, the application of a legal rule consisting of Elements 1-
4 to this set of facts can be conveniently represented in a table in the following
way:
Elements
Facts
Element 1
Fact 1
Element 2
Fact 2
Element 3
Fact 3
Element 4
Fact 4
Fact 5
Fact n
Consequences
Figure 3.10 Elements and Facts
This table illustrates how the Rules 1 and 2 apply. Rule 1 is satisfied because
this set of facts contains facts, Facts 1-4, that fall within and thus satisfy the
categories designated by Elements 1-4. Rule 2 presents no problem. It asserts
that it makes no difference that the set of facts contains facts additional to the
facts that satisfy the elements, Facts 1-4. The presence of other facts, here
labelled Facts 5-n, cause no direct consequences for the legal rule – no matter
what these other facts are the rule still applies.
Syllogism
That a legal rule is a conditional statement brings an inevitable additional
consequence –
application of legal rule to facts constitutes a syllogism for
which the conditional statement constitutes the major premise. To illustrate the
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