Law and Logic: E. Bulygin’s Deductive Pattern of Judicial Reasoning

Authors

  • Elena TIMOSHINA St. Petersburg State University
  • Arseny KRAEVSKY St. Petersburg State University

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.24234/wisdom.v1i1.673

Keywords:

legal reasoning, application of law, creation of law, E. Bulygin, logic in law, judicial syllogism, legal realism, subsumption, judicial decision

Abstract

In the twentieth century, the debate over the possibilities and limits of logic in law became particularly acute with the emergence of judicial realism, a philosophical and legal trend that denied the deductive nature of judicial decision-making. This compromised the theory of the judicial syllogism, assuming that a judicial decision could be deduced as a logical consequence from the premises - norms and facts, and generally provoked a sceptical attitude towards logic in law. The subject of the article is the deductive model of the justification of judicial decisions proposed by the outstanding legal philosopher Eugenio Bulygin. The aim of the article is to show Bulygin’s contribution to the improvement of the deductive model of judicial reasoning. The main innovations Bulygin brought to the deductive model of judicial reasoning are: 1) justifying, based on logical analysis and open texture of language theory, the analytical character of the court interpretative sentences; 2) distinguishing the individual and the generic subsumptions, etc. At the same time, the authors conclude that Bulygin’s improved deductive theory is not free from criticism, as the Argentine jurist does not succeed in complete eliminating doubts about the logical deducibility of at least some categories of decisions from general rules.

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Author Biographies

Elena TIMOSHINA, St. Petersburg State University

PhD, Doctor of Science in Law, Professor at the Department of Theory and History of State and Law at St. Petersburg State University, St. Petersburg, Russia. Her areas of interest include history and methodology of jurisprudence, the logic of norms, theory of legal principles, theory of human rights, judicial law creation, history of legal philosophy. Timoshina is the author of more than 150 scientific works (including ten monographs). Recent publications: “To Establish the Truth: On Realism and Relativism in Legal Science (In Continuation of the Discussion of Realistic Turn)”, “Sociology as a “Strict Science”: Leon Petrazhitsky’s Unfinished Project”.

Arseny KRAEVSKY, St. Petersburg State University

PhD in Law, Associate Professor at the Department of Theory and History of State and Law at St. Petersburg State University, St. Petersburg, Russia. His areas of interest include general theory of law and state, history of legal philosophy, sociology of law, the logic of norms and interpretation of the law. Kraevsky is the author of 27 scientific works (including two monographs). Recent publications: “Validity and Efficacy of International Law According to the Pure Theory of Law”, “Jus non Scriptum: On the Efficacy of Legal Customs and Their Application by Russian Courts” (in cooperation with E. V. Timoshina).

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Published

2021-12-15

How to Cite

TIMOSHINA, E., & KRAEVSKY, A. (2021). Law and Logic: E. Bulygin’s Deductive Pattern of Judicial Reasoning. WISDOM, 1(1), 212–222. https://doi.org/10.24234/wisdom.v1i1.673