Chapter 1: Reason in Law

Chapter 1 Reason in Law What Legal Reasoning is and Why it Matters: Overview of Law and Politics: • How should judges decide one's fate? ○ Legal Rule: a statute or constitutional clause or a judicial precedent can settle the matter ○ Judges should consider moral values at stake in each dispute § Courts should serve as a kind of moral forum in which judges articulate society's most deeply held values and interpret the rules so as to advance those values. The Law is All Around Us: • Law becomes the rule of law only when courts have the power to resolve legal claims, or when people knowing that powerful courts can step in to settle matters for them, bargain in the shadow of the law ○ The political system of the United States incorporates a powerful and independent judiciary ○ Alexis De Tocqueville says: "there is hardly a political question in the United States that does not sooner or later turn into a judicial one. The Rule of Law Keeps the Peace: • The whole point of the rule of law is to set standards of governance that transcend individual beliefs • The rule of law substitutes legal reasoning for moral righteousness ○ The legal reasoning question is not whether we like the result but whether the judge has given reasons we find trustworthy. • The rule of law substitutes legal reasoning for moral righteousness ○ The legal reasoning question is not whether we like the result but whether the judge has given reasons we find trustworthy. The Critical Importance of Judicial Impartiality: • The impartiality of legal judges is necessary for political peace • Triadic dispute resolution: ○ If a conflict arises between two persons and they cannot resolve it themselves, then in all cultures and societies it is logical for those two persons to call upon a third to assist in its resolution. § Assistance meaning a mediator, abritrator or the judge ○ Trying to avoid the two against one, which will make it most unfair of configurations • Judges try to avoid this two against one perception by writing opinions explaining and thereby justifying the results they reach. • Politics - refers to all the things people do in communities in order to minimize threats to their well-being. ○ Political behavior sometimes tries to conserve what it is and sometime • The sense of injustice can cause explosive social damage ○ if judges do triadic dispute resolution badly the whole community can be affected Examples: § Ferguson Case: Grand Jury refused to indict Missouri Police Officer Darren Wilson for shooting an unarmed black man Michael Brown § Grand Jury in New York did not indict another police officer for choking to death Eric Garner another unarmed black man § 2 decades before in Los Angeles a grand jury acquitted police officers in the beating of Rodney King. another police officer for choking to death Eric Garner another unarmed black man § 2 decades before in Los Angeles a grand jury acquitted police officers in the beating of Rodney King. ○ There is an impartiality of judges and it creates disrespect for legal institutions and the rule of law.