Reasoning with Precedents as Constrained Natural Reasoning
John F. Horty · Oxford University Press eBooks · 2016
This chapter develops a picture according to which decision making in the common law is entirely guided by reasons rather than rules, and differs from ordinary decision making only to the extent that a common law reasoner, conforming to the requirements of precedent, must adapt his or her own weighting, or priority ordering, on reasons so that it coheres with a priority ordering derived from a background case base. Common law reasoning is thus cast as a form of constrained natural reasoning, in which precedent cases are treated as reasons for altering the weights, or priorities, that would normally be assigned to other reasons.