Tech Reports

ULCS-03-006

Towards an Account of Persuasion in Law

Katie Greenwood, Trevor Bench-Capon and Peter McBurney


Abstract

In this paper we attempt to give an account of reasoning with legal cases contextualised within a general theory of persuasion in practical reasoning. We begin by presenting our general theory, concentrating on the variety of ways in which a particular position can be attacked. We then apply our theory to the legal domain, illustrating our approach by a case study based on the well known CATO system. From this we conclude that it is possible to see reasoning with legal cases as a particular instantiation of our general theory. We identify some points of interest for discussion, and conclude by stating our intended directions for future work.

[Full Paper]