DiaLaw: On Legal Justification and Dialogical Models of Argumentation

by A.R. Lodder

Overview

This book is a revised version of my dissertation 'DiaLaw - on legal th justification and dialog games' that I defended on June 5 1998 at the Universiteit Maastricht. The chapters 1, 4 & 5 (now: 1, 5 & 6) of my dissertation have remained largely unaltered. In chapter 2 I added explicitly the distinction between constructing legal justification and reconstructing it, and tried to elucidate the differences (and similarities) between the product and process of justification. Chapter 3 is divided into two chapters: one on the general characteristics of DiaLaw (now: chapter 3), and the other on specific, legal characteristics of DiaLaw (now: chapter 4). In order to improve readability, all rules in these chapters have been rewritten considerably. The section on the implementation of DiaLaw is moved to the appendix. In chapter 7 (the former chapter 6), a discussion of the notions 'procedural' and 'structural' arguments is added, and different layers in argumentation models are discussed. Finally, in chapter 8 (the former chapter 7) is added a recapitulation of my view on legal justification, and a discussion on the future use in legal practice of dialog models that represent argumentation in a natural way. The main thesis has remained unaltered: legal justification should be modeled as a procedural, dialogical model in which not only products of argumentation are allowed, but, even in formal models, rhetorical, psychological aspects of argument are dealt with.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780792358305
Publisher:	Springer Netherlands
Publication date:	07/31/1999
Series:	Law and Philosophy Library , #42
Edition description:	1999
Pages:	198
Product dimensions:	6.10(w) x 9.25(h) x 0.24(d)

Table of Contents

1 Introduction.- 1. Artificial Intelligence and Law.- 2. Legal justification.- 3. Outline of the book.- 2 From law to DiaLaw Why legal justification should be modeled dialogically.- 1. The product and the process of justification.- 2. Justification as a product.- 3. The defeasible nature of legal justification.- 4. The open nature of law.- 5. The Münchhausen Trilemma.- 6. Justification as a process: a dialogical model.- 7. Dealing with defeasibility, open nature, and the Münchhausen Trilemma in a dialogical model.- 8. Justification of dialog rules and altering prools.- 9. How pure is the procedure of legal justification?.- 10. Conclusion.- 3 DiaLaw Framework and general rules.- 1. Justification in DiaLaw.- 2. Basic concepts of DiaLaw.- 3. DiaLaw’s dialogical framework.- 4. General rules for communication.- 5. Towards legal justification.- 4 DiaLaw Special rules for communication.- 1. Special language elements.- 2. Special rules for communication - legal tools and forced commitment.- 3. Concluding remarks.- 5 DiaLaw in action.- 1. The Tyrell case.- 2. The Chabot case.- 3. Concluding remarks.- 6 Dialogical models of argumentation.- 1. The purpose of models.- 2. A short sample dialog.- 3. Mackenzie’s DC and Hamblin’s H.- 4. Rescher’s Dialectics and the formal elaboration by Brewka.- 5. Gordon’s Pleadings Game.- 6. Survey of moves and commitment.- 7. Other related research.- 8. Conclusion.- 7 What is an argument? Properties of procedural models of argumentation.- 1. Argumentation: two perspectives.- 2. Argumentation: two types.- 3. Towards combining the approaches.- 4. DiaLaw: rational and dia-rational argumentation.- 5. Procedural and structural arguments.- 6. Layers in models of legal argumentation.- 7. Conclusion.- 8 In conclusion.- 1. On legaljustification.- 2. The answers.- 3. The future: towards natural dialog models.- 4. Closing remarks.- Appendix- Prolog code of DiaLaw.- References.- Index of names.- Index of subjects.

Editorial Reviews

‘... merit of Lodder's book rather lies on the terrain of clarity of exposition and completeness... By its sober language and transparent but otherwise complete exposition I recommend the use...in graduate courses on AI & Law and legal argumentation.'
Artificial Intelligence and Law, 8 (2000)

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