Analogy, similarity and factors
Michał Araszkiewicz · 2011
Analogy has been considered in AI and law primarily in relation to reasoning from precedent cases rather than reasoning from statutes. Where a statutory provision does not apply to a case, the principle of e contrario, that if the case is not covered by the rule the negation of the conclusion can be taken as established, has typically been assumed to apply. There are, however, cases where analogy is an appropriate way to bring a case under a statutory rule. In this paper we discuss using analogy in reasoning with states, and where this should be avoided and e contrario followed. Our account will be based on the notion of factors as developed in AI and law case based reasoning.