An Integrated View on Rules and Principles

In the law, it is generally acknowledged that there are intuitive differences between reasoning with rules and reasoning with principles. For instance, a rule seems to lead directly to its conclusion if its condition is satisfied, while a principle seems to lead merely to a reason for its conclusion. However, the implications of these intuitive differences for the logical status of rules and principles remain controversial. A radical opinion has been put forward by Dworkin (1978). The intuitive differences led him to argue for a strict logical distinction between rules and principles. Ever since, there has been a controversy whether the intuitive differences between rules and principles require a strict logical distinction between the two. For instance, Soeteman (1991) disagrees with Dworkin’s opinion, and argues that rules and principles cannot be strictly distinguished, and do not have a different logical structure. In this paper, we claim that the differences between rules and pr...

• Type: Journal
• Year: 1998
• Where: AIL
• Authors: Bart Verheij, Jaap Hage, H. Jaap van den Herik
• Keywords: AIL 1998, Intuitive Differences, Reasoning, Strict Logical Distinction