Saturday, November 13, 2010
Analogies in the Law
I found the section about Analogies in the Law in Chapter 12 to be very interesting. According to the textbook, analogies in the law are presented as "detailed and carefully analyzed arguments" that have the "important similarities pointed out and a general principal stated." Many of the laws that we have are not very specific. It is very important that all of the laws we have be applied consistently. In most instances, judges usually make their ruling based on a previous case or cases that were similar. One example of a case when a judge said all past rulings were incorrect was Brown vs. the Board of Education. This case dealt with segregation in schools. Another example of this is the Roe vs. Wade case, which dealt with abortion. When a judge is in a situation in which he does not know what to decide, he will look for differences between the current case and previous cases.
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Hey Kenny Powers, I picked this same topic when I was looking for an undiscussed concept to write about. Its definitely interesting to see how analogies continue to affect us in our daily lives, especially with the law. Its good to know that rulings will stay consistent because judges will look for similiarities in past cases. Whats good about this is that they could also look for differences when they feel that they need to make a completely different decision. I also liked the examples that the book gave on those rare decisions that completely change future law, and in those cases was definitely for the better!
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