The Quest for Coherence in Judicial Reasoning

ARASZKIEWICZ, Michal and Jaromír ŠAVELKA. The Quest for Coherence in Judicial Reasoning. i-lex. Rome, 2012, vol. 7, No 17, p. 173-190. ISSN 1825-1927.

Basic information

• Original name: The Quest for Coherence in Judicial Reasoning
• Authors: ARASZKIEWICZ, Michal (616 Poland) and Jaromír ŠAVELKA (203 Czech Republic, guarantor, belonging to the institution).
• Edition: i-lex, Rome, 2012, 1825-1927.

Other information

• Original language: English
• Type of outcome: Article in a journal
• Field of Study: 50500 5.5 Law
• Country of publisher: Italy
• Confidentiality degree: is not subject to a state or trade secret
• WWW: URL
• RIV identification code: RIV/00216224:14220/12:00062132
• Organization unit: Faculty of Law
• Keywords in English: coherence constraint satisfaction judicial reasoning
• Tags: rivok

Abstract

There are two fundamentally distinct approaches towards modeling of legal reasoning – the top-down and bottom-up approaches. The main difference lies in the method of acquiring the elements which consequently constitute the model. This paper aims to compare the approaches as regards the resulting model represented in the coherence as constraint satisfaction network. At first the top-down approach is applied to the Court of Justice European Union case of Bezpečnostní softwarová asociace – Svaz softwarové ochrany v. Ministerstvo kultury ČR and the resulting model is presented and briefly assessed. The very same case is then modeled using the bottom-up approach. While both models that have been created differ quite significantly they display surprisingly similar features. Both models suggest that the court provides the interpretation of key terms without grounding it in the provisions of authoritative texts. Thus, it either seems to be the case that there is a large portion of implicit reasoning both models fail to express or that the reasoning of the court is actually not grounded in authoritative text.