Summer School of Logical Reasoning and Law

The Summer School of Logical Reasoning and Law is a Crash Course that will take place at the Lisbon University School of Law and includes some of the most prestigious international scholars that deal with the subject of applying logic to law.

Legal practice is fundamentally an argumentative practice. Many legal arguments are in fact logical arguments based on legal premises. Consequently, many ill-deployed arguments are simply a matter of poor application of logic.

To have a better legal reasoning, it is essential to assess the role – and, also, the limits – of logical argumentation in legal practice. This course aims to explain and connect basic theoretical knowledge of logic with fundamental questions of legal practice. How does logic apply to legal positions? What role does logic play in analogical reasoning, a a contrario or a fortiori reasoning? What main logical fallacies exist and how should they be avoided? What are the contributions and limits of logic in the process of solving normative conflicts and balancing? How does logic contribute to the proper justification of judicial decisions? What does logic teach us in evaluating the evidence presented in a particular case?

These are some of the questions we shall answer in the sessions of this course.

Registration includes daily classes of 4 hours*ranging from 17 up to 26 June, admission to the “VII Lisbon Annual Meeting on Legal Theory” on the topic of Logic, Norms and Legal Decisions and a Social Event (June 19).

This course is specially aimed at law students and professionals who want to develop their ability to use logic in legal practice and in a theoretical context.

**On 26 of June classes will be of 6 hours.