damages. A person who wrongs another person can be ordered to pay a sum
of money, called damages, to compensate that person for their loss.
Conditional Statements
Introduction
The third component or characteristic of a legal rule is really its fundamental
nature. A legal rule operates as a conditional statement (which is also referred
to just as a conditional or as a hypothetical statement). This statement wraps
up or impounds both elements and consequences and by this mean imposes
the consequences on the parties.
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Nature of Conditional Statements
A conditional statement is a statement based on “if” or “when” (and the two
are interchangeable for these purposes). Thus a conditional statement takes the
form: “If X then Y”. In other words, and putting this in an expanded form: “If
X happens (or is true) then Y happens (or follows or is true)”. The first part,
“if X happens” is called the antecedent or protasis. It prescribes the conditions
for the consequence, Y, to happen. The second part, “Y happens” (that is Y
follows or is true) is labelled the consequent or the apodosis.
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While it is obvious that a statement in the form “If X then Y” is a conditional
statement, a conditional statement may take other forms because what count is
substance not form. Two other forms are worth noting. (i) One such other
form consists of an expression of a causal relationship. It takes the form: “X
causes Y” meaning in this context that X always causes Y. This statement can
be written in conditional form by saying that “if X happens, Y follows”. (ii) A
rule that is expressed as a command in the form “you must” or “you must
not” is also a conditional statement. In the legal context, this form is essentially
a conditional statement since it can be transcribed into conditional form
without loss of meaning. Thus “you must do X” becomes “if you fail to do X
you commit an offence,” just as “you must not do Y” becomes “if you do Y
you commit an offence”.
In a legal rule, the conditional statement links the elements and the
consequences and in this way imposes the consequences on the relevant
parties.
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To bring this about, the conditional statement takes the following
form: “If the facts of the case fall within the overall category of facts defined
___________________
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Twining and Miers (1999) pp 131-134
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Relating this to the present context, the elements are the protasis or
antecedent of the conditional statement and the consequences are the apodosis or
consequent.
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While most legal rules contain both elements and consequences there is an
exception – this is discussed below.
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