By Chinua Asuzu
As an advocate, you need to master legal argument: how to make it, analyze it, and assess it. To analyze and assess legal arguments, you must learn to detect fallacious arguments.
You need not memorize the names of all the fallacies; it suffices if you can tell that something is wrong with the argument—you can then review it more critically.
Legal argument—in briefs, judgments, and other media—is shockingly riddled with fallacies.
“Learning how to spot and avoid … logical fallacies can enormously strengthen your legal writing … by helping you adhere to the ‘pristine logic’ of correct syllogistic reasoning.” Neal Ramee, ‘Logic and Legal Reasoning: A Guide for Law Students,’ 1, unc.edu.
You will be more effective as an advocate if you “understand logic and how logic can be manipulated through fallacious reasoning. A logical fallacy is an invalid way to reason.” Gerald Lebovits, ‘Say It Ain’t So: Leading Logical Fallacies in Legal Argument–Part 1,’ 88 NYSBA Journal (No. 6, July/Aug 2016), 64.
You’ll find that some of the fallacies have Latin names. That’s awesome. Latin is a gorgeous language. Don’t let anyone scare or urge you off Latin.
“It is well worth [your] trouble to learn the Latin tags [of some of the fallacies] wherever possible. When an opponent is accused of perpetrating something with a Latin name it sounds as if he is suffering from a rare tropical disease.” Madsen Pirie, How to Win Every Argument: The Use and Abuse of Logic (Continuum, 2006), Introduction.
And let’s get honest about this: the invocation of Latin has the fringe benefit of making you appear “both erudite and authoritative.” Pirie, ibid.
Chinua Asuzu, Brief-Writing Master Plan (Partridge, 2022), 667–668.
