Rules and fallacies in the arguments with special reference to Law

A first information report notes that the accused ran when the police arrived. A prosecutor argues: only a guilty person runs, therefore the accused is guilty. That single sentence hides one of the exact fallacies this topic asks you to spot — and spotting it is a skill you will use in every moot court argument you ever make.

In two minutes

The same rules that make a hypothetical or disjunctive argument valid or fallacious in logic operate, unlabelled, inside contracts, statutes and courtroom arguments — and a lawyer who cannot name the fallacy cannot answer it.

The rest of this chapter

The full explanation, the cheat sheet, every previous-year question at every mark weight, the quiz and the answer skeletons are part of Logic – II on LexBlox Semester. Sign in to unlock the subject, or read Module 1 of Legal Language and Writing free.