Legal Analysis: The Fundamental Skill

Legal Analysis: The Fundamental Skill

The second edition continues to teach students the critical skills of legal reasoning. This popular book is a practical and clear guide that explains the many ways lawyers analyze the law. The authors demystify legal analysis by examining the foundations and methodology of legal problem solving, and by discussing the different levels of critical thinking necessary to develop effective legal arguments. The book emphasizes the importance of applying the law as opposed to relying excessively on formulaic methods of analysis. New to the second edition, the book will examine rule-based reasoning and the embedded rule; examine deductive analysis and resolving statutory ambiguity; examine case-law reasoning and inductive analysis; examine the role of policy in legal argument; examine the structure and variations of legal argument and CREAC; and offer new examples and exercises.