On the Argumentum Ad Absurdum in Statutory Interpretation: Its Uses and Normative Significance

LEGAL ARGUMENTATION THEORY: CROSS-DISCIPLINARY PERSPECTIVES, C. Dalhman, E. Feteris, eds., Springer, 2013

27 Pages Posted: 7 Mar 2012 Last revised: 10 Sep 2014

See all articles by Thomas Bustamante

Thomas Bustamante

Federal University of Minas Gerais (UFMG)

Date Written: March 7, 2012

Abstract

The ad absurdum argument can be understood either as a strictly logical tool, which is equivalent to a proof by contradiction, or as a pragmatic argument about the desirability or undesirability of a given proposition. Yet in legal reasoning lawyers tend to use it, at least in the vast majority of cases, only in the latter sense. The argumentum ad absurdum, as I will argue, can be classified as a special kind of pragmatic argument whose specific feature is its special argumentative strength in comparison with generic consequentialist argumentation. Once we are able to grant that premise, the paper intends to explain the most important rules of interpretation that may be used to determine the conditions under which the ad absurdum argument can be correctly deployed in legal reasoning.

Keywords: absurdity, argumentation, law, reduction, normative significance, rationality, rules, interpretation, performative contradictions, consequentialism

Suggested Citation

Bustamante, Thomas da Rosa, On the Argumentum Ad Absurdum in Statutory Interpretation: Its Uses and Normative Significance (March 7, 2012). LEGAL ARGUMENTATION THEORY: CROSS-DISCIPLINARY PERSPECTIVES, C. Dalhman, E. Feteris, eds., Springer, 2013, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=2017472 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.2017472

Thomas da Rosa Bustamante (Contact Author)

Federal University of Minas Gerais (UFMG) ( email )

Av. Antonio Carlos, 6627
Belo Horizonte, Minas Gerais 31270-901
Brazil

HOME PAGE: http://www.ufmg.br

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