Legal Reasoning

Legal reasoning is the way lawyers and judges talk publicly about the law. This legal language gives us the tools to tell the difference between impartial and partisan legal decisions. Legal reasoning also provides a language tool, which enables people of different beliefs and worldviews to arbitrate their differences in a way that is acceptable to all, resulting in decisions that are seen as legitimate in a pluralistic society.

Legal reasoning matters, because it is the means by which judges can convince us of their integrity. Even though we disagree with the decision we may not disagree with the way the decision was made.

Deductive and Inductive Reasoning:

Deductive reasoning
Deductive reasoning is a basic form of valid reasoning. Deductive reasoning, or deduction, starts out with a general statement, or hypothesis, and examines the possibilities to reach a specific, logical conclusion. The scientific method uses deduction to test hypotheses and theories.
In deductive reasoning, if something is true of a class of things in general, it is also true for all members of that class. For example, "All men are mortal. Harold is a man. Therefore, Harold is mortal." For deductive reasoning to be sound, the hypothesis must be correct. It is assumed that the premises, "All men are mortal" and "Harold is a man" are true. Therefore, the conclusion is logical and true.
It's possible to come to a logical conclusion even if the generalization is not true. If the generalization is wrong, the conclusion may be logical, but it may also be untrue. For example, the argument, "All bald men are grandfathers. Harold is bald. Therefore, Harold is a grandfather," is valid logically but it is untrue because the original statement is false.

Inductive reasoning
Inductive reasoning is the opposite of deductive reasoning. Inductive reasoning makes broad generalizations from specific observations. Even if all of the premises are true in a statement, inductive reasoning allows for the conclusion to be false. Here’s an example: "Harold is a grandfather. Harold is bald. Therefore, all grandfathers are bald." The conclusion does not follow logically from the statements.
Inductive reasoning has its place in the scientific method. Scientists use it to form hypotheses and theories. Deductive reasoning allows them to apply the theories to specific situations.   

Elements:

Elements	Definition	Issue	Decision
1. Case Facts	Testimony as to what happened that is preserved as evidence in a trial.	Did the Judge follow the facts as established in the trial, or did he ignore them?	Yes Good Reasoning	No Poor Reasoning. Judge is not persuasive that he arrived at his decision fairly.
2. Social Background Facts	How we believe the world works. The facts, conditions, events that we observe as to how the world works.	Did the Judge give due recognition to facts that we observe on how the world works.	Yes Good Reasoning. Reflects reality.	No. Judge lives on another planet and only commutes to Earth.
3. Rules of Law	Uses the official legal texts in their hierarchy of value that are intended for cases like this	Did the Judge read the texts correctly and use them in their proper hierarchy.	Yes. Good authority for the decision	No. Authority for the decision is not creditable.
4.Widely Share Moral Values and Social Principles	A due recognition that some things are right and some things are wrong as acceptable social behavior	Did the Judge follow the community's consensus about moral values and social principles	Yes. Decision fits moral code of community	No. Decision is contrary to the accepted moral code of the community. Therefore it is not what the law ought to be.

Approaches to counselling

Counselling Method	Causes for Problems	Treatment Method	Counsellor’s Approach
Psychoanalysis (Psychological)	Regression of natural desires with sexual and social maladjustments	Psychotherapy with emphasis on childhood experiences	Expert Knowledge
Non-Directive Counselling (self-discovery)	Lack of self-understanding	Affirmation of self and self-directed growth	Common Knowledge
Existential Counselling (meaning)	Unfulfilled needs and potential	Redirecting of priorities to fulfil personal needs with self-fulfilment	Humanistic Knowledge
Transactional Analysis (cognitive)	Playing out of inappropriate roles from learned past experiences	Re-education of mechanics of roles (parent, adult, child)	Educative Knowledge
Behavioural Counselling (behaviour)	Wrong learned behaviour	Relearning based primarily upon a reward system omitting punishment	Experimental Knowledge
Reality Therapy (facing issues)	Refusal to accept current reality resulting in blame and escapism	Confrontation with facts	Authoritative Knowledge
Biblical Counselling (obeying God)	Sin and a lack of understanding spiritual knowledge, wisdom and truth	Application of the word of God by hearing and obeying God	Revelational Knowledge

Basic Approaches to Counselling

significance of mooting to law students

What is mooting?

Mooting is the oral presentation of a legal issue or problem against an opposing counsel and before a judge. It is perhaps the closest experience that a student can have whilst at university to appearing in court.

Why should I get involved in mooting?

Mooting now forms a compulsory part of certain law courses, but is still a totally voluntary student-organised activity in other law schools. Whether or not mooting is compulsory at your law school, gaining mooting experience can have a positive impact on your future career.

As many students will be aware, the legal profession is an increasingly difficult one to enter. Application forms for legal professional courses, solicitors’ firms and barristers’ chambers often demand that a candidate can provide evidence of their advocacy or mooting experience whilst at university (over and above any of the more traditional areas of advocacy such as debating).

Mooting may also help you to build confidence in public speaking, general research, and presentation skills. In other words mooting experience can benefit every student whether or not they plan to follow a traditional legal career path upon graduation.

syllogism

A syllogism  is a kind of logical argument in which one proposition (the conclusion) is inferred from two or more others (the premises) of a specific form. In antiquity, two rival theories of the syllogism existed: Aristotelian syllogistic and Stoic syllogistic.

Aristotle defines the syllogism as "a discourse in which certain (specific) things having been supposed, something different from the things supposed results of necessity because these things are so." Despite this very general definition, Aristotle limits himself to categorical syllogisms which consist of three categorical propositions in his work Prior Analytic. These included categorical modal syllogisms.

From the Middle Ages onward, "categorical syllogism" and "syllogism" were mostly used interchangeably, and the present article is concerned with this traditional use of "syllogism" only. The syllogism was at the core of traditional deductive reasoning, where facts are determined by combining existing statements, in contrast to inductive reasoning where facts are determined by repeated observations.

the logic and law

Law is of vital importance, touching the lives of all people. The effect of law also matters a great deal, and the costs of mistakes can be serious. In order to comply with the law it must be understood by those it affects, and to be accepted it must be explained in terms that are comprehensible by those to whom they are
addressed. Moreover, the law must be applied in a way which is transparent and accountable.

The original use of logic in law was for representation of law in a clear and unambiguous manner. In these approaches, reasoning was seen as simply deduction from the resulting formal representation. This conception, adopting a narrow view of logic, sees reasoning as following from representation: once the meaning of the concepts has been formalized, the notion of valid inference follows automatically, so that the main task is to develop sound and complete proof procedures. In other words: representing the law comes first; the reasoning follows from it and can be done within a traditional conception of logic. This approach was popularized, which showed the strengths of the approach by applying it to a piece of new legislation in
which issues of interpretation were minimized, but the success here was not readily transferable to other areas.

Attempts to build on this work led to the realization that many aspects of legal reasoning go beyond the semantics of traditional logical approaches. When a law is framed, the legislators are well aware that they cannot envisage all the circumstances in which it will be applied. Typically they will enunciate a general norm, capturing the essence of the proposed measure, and then qualify this with a series of exceptions. Furthermore they use abstract concepts, intended to be interpreted in the light of the concrete facts of the cases that are brought before the court. This leads to uncertainty and disagreement, in situations moreover, where there are inevitably conflicts of interest. Therefore, to apply to law, the logic must be robust in the face of exceptions,
conflicting rules, vagueness, and open texture and recognize the possibility of rational disagreement.

Some of these features primarily led to innovations in approaches to reasoning, others made it necessary to consider context, procedure, interaction and other dynamic aspects. The need to handle these features has also led to a broader conception of logic. This is essentially a special case of a general development in logic. For instance, speaks (in addition to a computational turn) of first a cognitive turn in logic, in which greater interest is paid how reasoning is actually practiced and then an interactive turn, in which the reasoning is considered in the context of the behavior of intelligent agents engaged in social interaction, with meaning emerging from these communicative exchanges.

legal V/s general counselling

Legal counseling and General counseling are two separate terms that should be used with difference. They are certainly not the words that have the same meanings. Legal counseling is the advice given on legal matters or matters related to law and its proceedings. It is important to know that legal counseling is given by lawyers or advocates who are in need of help regarding matters of dispute, controversy and the like.

Legal counseling is given as part of law suits or cases pending on the defendant. Plaintiffs also get legal counseling from their lawyers in matters relating to the case. They are advised as to how to proceed with the case. Legal counseling is given in the professional mode. In other words it can be said that legal counseling is looked upon as a part of the profession of a lawyer. It is quite natural that a lawyer is paid fees for imparting legal counseling to his client.

General counseling on the other hand is counsel or advice given on matters related to general interest such as education, job placement, career building and the like. It is of two types, namely, the professional and the service-oriented. In the professional type of general counseling the practitioner collects fees for guiding a student or a person as to how to build a career, secure a job overseas or plan for higher studies. General counseling also aims at solving problems of the people related to psychology such as anxiety, depression, anger, stress, lack of self confidence, conflict between couples and the like.

In the service-oriented type of general counseling the cell forms a part of an educational institution like a college or a university and it collects no fees since it becomes a part of the institution. This is the difference between legal and general counseling.

what is Legal Counselling

Counselling meas different things to different people. To some it's about advice, and to others it's tea and sympathy. For others, counselling is a long term process.

My interpretation of the meaning of counselling is about helping people who want to change some aspects of their thoughts, feelings or behavior to enhance their life, or simply to explore and/or clarify their thoughts or feelings.By counselling I mean talking to a counselor, i.e., someone who is properly trained and has regular professional supervision.

Counselling is not about giving advice in the sense of ready-made solutions to your problem. No one can be 'sent' for counselling and counselling can't be 'done to you'. A person makes a positive choice to see a counselor and the process demands commitment in terms of time, hard work and finance.

Legal Interviewing

Definition:

An interview is a conversation between two or more people here questions are asked by the interviewer to elicit facts or statements from the interviewee. Similarly, Legal Interview is a conversation between a lawyer and his client in order to know the facts and information regarding some particular case(s).

Significance:

A legal interview has three key aims:

• establishing an effective relationship with the client
• identifying the nature of the client's problem
• Obtaining enough information from the client to reach a potential solution.

The basics for a legal interview are as follows:

(1) Motivate the Client’s Participation (Develop Rapport through Active Listening): A legal interview often concerns sensitive topics that an individual would not necessarily tell a stranger. Thus, the first step in the interview is developing rapport and motivating the client to talk freely.

The client may be reluctant to reveal information for several reasons. However, Countervailing factors will motivate the client to talk. The client’s desire to resolve the problem favorably may overcome her reluctance to talk. The lawyer can gently bring into play each of these factors. Perhaps most importantly, the lawyer can try to put herself in the position of the client, to really understand and empathize with the client’s problems, and use active listening techniques to reflect back the client’s feelings. For instance:

        Client: “I don’t want to testify in court. It sounds like a bad experience—all those questions, people looking at me—I would probably be so uptight, I’d say the wrong thing.”

        Lawyer: “You feel anxious about getting up on the stand and perhaps embarrassing yourself (Lawyer reflects client’s feelings). Don’t worry. Before the trial we will practice your examination and visit the courtroom where you will testify (lawyer responds to client’s concerns).”

(2)   Use Questioning Techniques Appropriate to Your Purpose (Open-ended, Narrow, Yes-No, Leading Questions):

“The form of the question will dictate the answer.”

                                                (A wise old lawyer)

Open-ended questions encourage the client to talk, and allow her to provide information that the lawyer would not otherwise obtain. Begin interviews with broad, open-ended questions that allow the client to tell her story in her own words. Content free questions avoid skewing the data received. Keep the client talking with prompts like, “What happened next?” and then what?”

In later stages of an interview open-ended questions often do not elicit enough detail and will not stimulate the client’s memory, so you will need to use narrow questions to probe for more information.

Leading questions suggest an answer and thus pose the risk for distorting the client’s answer and promoting unethical behavior by the lawyer (“You saw Bob reach for a gun just before you pulled the trigger, didn’t you?”). Use leading questions only to confirm information provided by the client, or to obtain information that the client may be reluctant to admit. Ex:“I guess you’ve had trouble with the police before.”

(3)   Allow the Client to Tell the Story Initially. The client comes to the interview with crucial information – what brings him to the lawyer, and usually, what result he wants. The lawyer has important information also – knowledge about the law and what facts are relevant given the law. Lawyers tend to use their knowledge to focus on the specifics of the case, and take control before giving the client a chance to tell his whole story. As a result, the client may feel like he never got a chance to tell his story, and the lawyer may fail to understand what the client really wants.

(4)   Structure the Interview: By using the following structure for an interview, the lawyer can ensure that the client has a chance to tell his story:

(a)        Briefly Explain What Will Happen in the Interview.

(b)        Preliminarily Identify the Problem.

(c)        Get a Chronological Overview of the Problem.

(d)        Develop and Verify Theories

(e)        Conclude the Interview.

The benchmark of a good interview is simple: the client will feel that he has consulted an attorney who is a caring human being. These suggestions on building rapport, questioning technique, and structuring the interview can provide a framework for approaching the interview and help you communicate your concern. However, remember that the client will recognize the difference between caring and technique. 

Communication Process

Communication is a process of exchanging verbal and non verbal messages. It is a continuous process. Pre-requisite of communication is a message. This message must be conveyed through some medium to the recipient. It is essential that this message must be understood by the recipient in same terms as intended by the sender. He must respond within a time frame. Thus, communication is a two way process and is incomplete without a feedback from the recipient to the sender on how well the message is understood by him.





The main components of communication process are as follows:

1. Context - Communication is affected by the context in which it takes place. This context may be physical, social, chronological or cultural. Every communication proceeds with context. The sender chooses the message to communicate within a context.
2. Sender / Encoder - Sender / Encoder is a person who sends the message. A sender makes use of symbols (words or graphic or visual aids) to convey the message and produce the required response. For instance - a training manager conducting training for new batch of employees. Sender may be an individual or a group or an organization. The views, background, approach, skills, competencies, and knowledge of the sender have a great impact on the message. The verbal and non verbal symbols chosen are essential in ascertaining interpretation of the message by the recipient in the same terms as intended by the sender.
3. Message - Message is a key idea that the sender wants to communicate. It is a sign that elicits the response of recipient. Communication process begins with deciding about the message to be conveyed. It must be ensured that the main objective of the message is clear.
4. Medium - Medium is a means used to exchange / transmit the message. The sender must choose an appropriate medium for transmitting the message else the message might not be conveyed to the desired recipients. The choice of appropriate medium of communication is essential for making the message effective and correctly interpreted by the recipient. This choice of communication medium varies depending upon the features of communication. For instance - Written medium is chosen when a message has to be conveyed to a small group of people, while an oral medium is chosen when spontaneous feedback is required from the recipient as misunderstandings are cleared then and there.
5. Recipient / Decoder - Recipient / Decoder is a person for whom the message is intended / aimed / targeted. The degree to which the decoder understands the message is dependent upon various factors such as knowledge of recipient, their responsiveness to the message, and the reliance of encoder on decoder.
6. Feedback - Feedback is the main component of communication process as it permits the sender to analyze the efficacy of the message. It helps the sender in confirming the correct interpretation of message by the decoder. Feedback may be verbal (through words) or non-verbal (in form of smiles, sighs, etc.). It may take written form also in form of memos, reports, etc.

barriers to communication

There are many reasons why interpersonal communications may fail.  In many communications, the message may not be received exactly the way the sender intended and hence it is important that the communicator seeks feedback to check that their message is clearly understood.

There exist many barriers to communication and these may occur at any stage in the communication process.  Barriers may lead to your message becoming distorted and you therefore risk wasting both time and/or money by causing confusion and misunderstanding.  Effective communication involves overcoming these barriers and conveying a clear and concise message.  Some common barriers to effective communication include:

• The use of jargon, over-complicated or unfamiliar terms.
• Emotional barriers and taboos.
• Lack of attention, interest, distractions, or irrelevance to the receiver.
• Differences in perception and viewpoint.
• Physical disabilities such as hearing problems or speech difficulties.
• Physical barriers to non-verbal communication.
• Language differences and the difficulty in understanding unfamiliar accents.
• Expectations and prejudices which may lead to false assumptions or stereotyping.  People often hear what they expect to hear rather than what is actually said and jump to incorrect conclusions.
• Cultural differences.  The norms of social interaction vary greatly in different cultures, as do the way in which emotions are expressed. For example, the concept of personal space varies between cultures and between different social settings.

channels of communication

In telecommunications and computer networking, a communication channel, or channel, refers either to a physical transmission medium such as a wire, or to a logical connection over a multiplexed medium such as a radio channel.
Communicating data from one location to another requires some form of pathway or medium. These pathways, called communication channels, use two types of media: cable (twisted-pair wire, cable, and fiber-optic cable) and broadcast (microwave, satellite, radio, and infrared). Cable or wire line media use physical wires of cables to transmit data and information. Twisted-pair wire and coaxial cables are made of copper, and fiber-optic cable is made of glass.

Direction of Communication

Flow of communication

In an organization, communication flows in various directions:

Downward communication: Downward communication flows from people at higher level to those at lower levels in the organization hierarchy. This kind of communication exists especially in organizations with an authoritarian leadership style. Examples of written downwards communication are memo, letters, handbooks, policy statements and procedures.

Upward communication: This communication travels from subordinates to superiors and continues up the organizational hierarchy. This type of communication is found in participative and democratic organizational environments. Typical means of upward communication are suggestion systems, appeal and grievance procedures, complaint systems, counseling sessions, grapevine, group meetings, morale questionnaires and the exit interview.

Crosswise communication: It includes the horizontal flow of information between people on the same or similar organisational levels and diagonal flow between persons at different levels who have no direct reporting relationships. This kind of communication is used to speed information flow, to improve understanding and to coordinate efforts for the achievement of organisational objectives. It may include oral communication ranging from informal meetings , or more formal conferences and board meetings. Written forms include company newspapers or magazine and bulletin boards.

Types of Communication

Types of Communication

People communicate with each other in a number of ways that depend upon the message and its context in which it is being sent. Choice of communication channel and your style of communicating also affects communication. So, there are variety of types of communication.

Types of communication based on the communication channels used are:

Verbal Communication

Verbal communication refers to the the form of communication in which message is transmitted verbally; communication is done by word of mouth and a piece of writing. Objective of every communication is to have people understand what we are trying to convey. In verbal communication remember the acronym KISS(keep it short and simple).

When we talk to others, we assume that others understand what we are saying because we know what we are saying. But this is not the case. usually people bring their own attitude, perception, emotions and thoughts about the topic and hence creates barrier in delivering the right meaning.

Verbal Communication is further divided into:

Oral Communication

In oral communication, Spoken words are used. It includes face-to-face conversations, speech, telephonic conversation, video, radio, television, voice over internet. In oral communication, communication is influence by pitch, volume, speed and clarity of speaking.

Advantages of Oral communication are:
It brings quick feedback.
In a face-to-face conversation, by reading facial expression and body language one can guess whether he/she should trust what’s being said or not.

Disadvantage of oral communication
In face-to-face discussion, user is unable to deeply think about what he is delivering, so this can be counted as a

Written Communication

In written communication, written signs or symbols are used to communicate. A written message may be printed or hand written. In written communication message can be transmitted via email, letter, report, memo etc. Message, in written communication, is influenced by the vocabulary & grammar used, writing style, precision and clarity of the language used.

Written Communication is most common form of communication being used in business. So, it is considered core among business skills.

Memos, reports, bulletins, job descriptions, employee manuals, and electronic mail are the types of written communication used for internal communication. For communicating with external environment in writing, electronic mail, Internet Web sites, letters, proposals, telegrams, faxes, postcards, contracts, advertisements, brochures, and news releases are used.

Advantages of written communication includes:
Messages can be edited and revised many time before it is actually sent.
Written communication provide record for every message sent and can be saved for later study.
A written message enables receiver to fully understand it and send appropriate feedback.

Disadvantages of written communication includes:
Unlike oral communication, Written communication doesn't bring instant feedback.
It take more time in composing a written message as compared to word-of-mouth. and number of people struggles for writing ability.

Nonverbal Communication

Nonverbal communication is the sending or receiving of wordless messages. We can say that communication other than oral and written, such as gesture, body language,posture, tone of voice or facial expressions, is called nonverbal communication.Nonverbal communication is all about the body language of speaker.

Nonverbal communication helps receiver in interpreting the message received. Often, nonverbal signals reflects the situation more accurately than verbal messages.Sometimes nonverbal response contradicts verbal communication and hence affect the effectiveness of message.

Nonverbal communication have the following three elements:

Appearance
Speaker: clothing, hairstyle, neatness, use of cosmetics
Surrounding: room size, lighting, decorations, furnishings

Body Language
facial expressions, gestures, postures

Sounds
Voice Tone, Volume, Speech rate

Types of Communication Based on Purpose and Style

Based on style and purpose, there are two main categories of communication and they both bears their own characteristics. Communication types based on style and purpose are:

1. Formal Communication

   In formal communication, certain rules, conventions and principles are followed while communicating message. Formal communication occurs in formal and official style. Usually professional settings, corporate meetings, conferences undergoes in formal pattern.
   In formal communication, use of slang and foul language is avoided and correct pronunciation is required. Authority lines are needed to be followed in formal communication.

2. Informal Communication

Informal communication is done using channels that are in contrast with formal communication channels. It’s just a casual talk. It is established for societal affiliations of members in an organization and face-to-face discussions. It happens among friends and family. In informal communication use of slang words, foul language is not restricted. Usually. informal communication is done orally and using gestures.
Informal communication, Unlike formal communication, doesn’t follow authority lines. In an organization, it helps in finding out staff grievances as people express more when talking informally. Informal communication helps in building relationships.

Communication

Meaning : Communication (from Latin "communis", meaning to share) is the activity of conveying information through the exchange of thoughts, messages, or information, as by speech, visuals, signals, writing, or behavior. It is the meaningful exchange of information between two or a group of person.

Communication requires a sender, a message, and a recipient, although the receiver doesn't have to be present or aware of the sender's intent to communicate at the time of communication; thus communication can occur across vast distances in time and space. The communication process is complete once the receiver has understood the message of the sender.