Forming Law
Forming law is the collective label used in this text for the two functions
involved in bringing law into existence. One consists of the basic task of
making law. The other involves completing the task of making law by
interpreting law. Interpreting a law effectively writes into the text of a law the
official legal meaning of some provision in the law. It determines that the
provision is to be interpreted in one way rather than another.
Using Law
Once law has been formed, people use it in two situations. They use law when
they perform legal transactions (such as making a will or buying and selling
land). They use law when they engage in litigation where they are suing or
being sued by another person.
Legal Reasoning
1 Introduction
[T]hat noble and most sovereign reason²
Here we consider the reasoning processes involved in the two major tasks in
the legal system. Forming law involves purposive action, which utilises policy.
Reasoning with policy rests on two core tasks, causation (as in predicting
causation) and evaluation. Using law in its overall operation involves syllogistic
reasoning. Within this overall operation other forms of reasoning are used
based on cognitive science, induction, deduction and abduction.
2 Forming Law
Introduction
This analysis of forming law is directed towards developing a method or
model to be used by a government which acts rationally and honestly when
enacting statutes. There are five basic propositions.
Proposition 1: Actions Cause Consequences
When a person or body takes an action it commonly causes some
consequences. In the extreme case it sets in chain a series of events where
each is caused and determined by the preceding one. In less strict cases it
makes it likely that events will happen or that people will decide to take a
particular cause of action.
Obviously each consequence is an action of some sort and so is likely to lead
to more consequences. In the result, an action is likely to be part of and to
start or continue one or more chains of consequences. These consequences
vary in their characteristics. They can last for a short term or a long term, they
can operate over a narrow area or a wide area, and they can concern a wide
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2
William Shakespeare Hamlet III.i.159
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