Customer Reviews

Logic for Lawyers : A Guide to Clear Legal Thinking

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

In additon to Aldisert's book, also get a practical book on trial advocacy, "Common Sense Rules of Advocacy for Lawyers" (also a wonderful book for 3Ls and new lawyers who want to learn how to be effective advocates). The author, Keith Evans, practiced as a British barrister for a decade and as a California trial lawyer for many years. He also lectured regularly to many American Inns of Court.

However, be warned: Common Sense Rules of Advocacy is NOT a book for litigators, but for advocates.

What others have said about Evans book:

"Valuable review for the old timers and an excellent primer for those who are starting the climb."
-- Jacob A. Stein, Stein, Mitchell & Mezines, Washington, DC

"Superb how-to book ...that is refreshingly readable."
-- Karl Tegland, author, "Courtroom Handbook on Washington Evidence"

"A wonderful 'Bible' for the trial lawyer who wants to win. If only we had had this in law school!"
-- Browne Greene, Greene, Broillet, Panish & Wheeler, Santa Monica, CA

"Even the most experienced trial lawyer can pick up some new techniques here."
-- Frederick C. Moss, Professor, Dedman School of Law, Southern Methodist University

"Valuable insights and practical lessons for anyone who advocates for a living."
-- Steve Clymer, J.D., mediator, arbitrator, and facilitator with ACCORD Dispute Resolution Services, Inc.

"Remarkable compendium of useful advice."
-- Roxanne Barton Conlin, Roxanne Conlin & Associates, Des Moines, IA (first woman President of Association of Trial Lawyers of America)

"Great introduction for the new lawyer and a wonderful learning tool for the advocate with experience."
-- Sherman L. Cohn, Professor, Georgetown University Law Center (first national President of American Inns of Court)

"Terrific guidebook."
-- Philip H. Corboy, Corboy & Demetrio, Chicago, IL

You can see more testimonials and more information about Evans' book at RulesOfAdvocacy.com. Or search Amazon for ISBN 1587330059.

The Hon. judge Ruggero J. Aldisert has written a book that is now considered a classic within the legal profession on this topic, but is not limited to those within that field. In fact, this book offers readers much to be appreciated on several fronts.

Let me note fist that I am not a legal professional, but primarily a minister of the Gospel (and a businessman besides). When taking one of my Cornell University certification programs in business some years ago, however, I was astounded that the "Experiential Learning Assessment" that they gave me (based upon the excellent work of Kolb, as revealed in the pages of Experiential Learning: Experience as the Source of Learning and Development), suggested that due to the way I "process" information, I should consider a career in either law or theology. The latter was already my primary vocation, of course; but the assessment's findings piqued my curiosity. Upon further reflection, I realized that the similarities are very obvious. The Bible is a revelation of God's Law (especially the Old Testament, but even the New...consider 1 Corinthians 9:21 for example).

Further, many of history's greatest preachers were trained lawyers before they entered the ministry (e.g. Calvin, Luther, Finney, etc.), and as recent as the Nineteenth Century in the United States, men often went to law school before entering seminary to pursue their theological training. Thus, my interest in this book was to explore the "other side" of logical reasoning--looking at it from the legal professional's point of view.

So to describe this book from my perspective...let me again note that this book is very useful on several levels:

First, the basic explanation of how Common Law tradition legal systems in Canada, UK, and the United States, originated and functions, was very insightful. This was cross referenced to a slight degree with the Civil Law tradition. However, I believe that The Civil Law Tradition, 3rd Edition: An Introduction to the Legal Systems of Europe and Latin America does a MUCH better job in explaining the latter and its strengths/weaknesses in comparison with the Common Law tradition. This second book is also more "neutral" and fair in the treatment of the two systems, whereas Aldisert reveals an obvious bias toward the Common Law tradition. Nevertheless, it was a very useful introduction to the differences.

Second, Aldisert's book explains the role of logic within the framework of legal systems, and in particular, in the formation of arguments before the bench and in elucidating court opinions/decisions. Many legal cases were quoted in the text (excerpts), and their particular fallacies and/or sound reasoning were investigated. This is where this book really shines.

The text does cover some basic aspects of both formal and informal logic, as would be expected before advancing beyond that point in order to explain its application. However, I am very much bewildered by the review posted by another person herein that it merely quotes Copi and Cohen's "Introduction to Logic" throughout. That is factually absurd. This book cites SEVERAL other logic-book references, many of which are other books dealing with legal reasoning specifically. It's copious citations from actual court cases in the USA and UK were also certainly not found within the pages of Copi and Cohen's excellent textbook. ;)

One caveat: This book uses legal terminology very freely. This is to be expected, because it was written by an appeals court judge who also taught other judges advanced course work, for many years. The author also expressly declares at the beginning that his target audience are those who are considering entering law school, or who already have--though he also pointed out that he had practicing legal professionals also in mind throughout.

To me, this was not a major problem because I have a copy of Black's Law Dictionary Deluxe Thumb Cut Edition sitting on my bookshelf, with which I was able to study those terms out and become familiar with them. This enabled Aldisert's book to simply reinforce my understanding of that jargon within my thinking, as he repeated those terms in suitable contexts frequently. Nevertheless, the fact of such prolific use of such "legalese" means that most people not familiar with those words are going to have to resort to Dictionary.com or some other source to understand what his point is--as Aldisert RARELY defines the terms he uses. (Perhaps that is why the other reviewer said he could not "grasp" what Aldisert was saying.)

The sum of the matter is this: This is an excellent book for revealing both the fundamentals of logic (and especially informal logic) and its application within the legal system.

If you have already studied Copi and Cohen's textbook, it will be even easier to absorb; but that is not really necessary, so long as you can surmount the legalese challenge. However, if you do want to get a copy of the Copi/Cohen textbook, I suggest that you save yourself a lot of money by purchasing a used edition. The new edition (currently the 14th at the time this review was written) is VERY expensive, and unnecessary unless you need the current edition for a college course. Thus, the previous edition is an excellent--and MUCH cheaper--alternative: Introduction to Logic.

For Christians, however, I would highly recommend beginning with DISCERNING TRUTH before considering Aldisert's book OR the Copi/Cohen textbook. Dr. Jason Lisle's wonderful (and short) coverage of logic therein is directly applied towards apologetics, and thus, is more easily absorbed by most Christians because of the familiarity of its biblical context. It is also quite a pleasant book to read.

Always in Jesus,

-Rev. Rich Vermillion

This book is not what I was looking for. Aldisert basically quotes Copi's book "Introduction to Logic" throughout. I've taken I logic course using the Copi book and recieved an "A-" and I still couldnt grasp what Aldisert tried to say in the book. I wanted a book to help me debate/argue in my pre law courses and this book didnt help.

I kept reading and re-reading this book in some hope that it would help me refute arguments and anaylze readings. This book just didnt do the job.

Aldisert said in the preface that he updated this book to make it easy to understand, and he failed.

I thought this book was going to help me apply logic to my readings. Alidisert just gave a whole bunch of court cases but I didnt see how he used Deductive/Inductive reasoning on it. This book was too vague. I liked the idea of giving us cases to anaylze, but he should broke down the cases step by step so the reader can understand how to apply logic.

Simply, he just doesnt show he the reader can apply logic to arguments/readings/everday language. I was very disapointed because by the reviews on Amazon I thought this book was going to do the trick.

I recommend "Intorduction to Logic" by Copi for anyone trying to learn how to apply logic, or you can just pick up an LSAT book.

This book cost me 50 bucks and i'm going to return this crap as soon as possible !!!