Also known as:deductive reason · deductively reasoned · deduction · deductive logic
Written by attorneys · grounded in primary & secondary sources — see below
A method of legal reasoning that applies a general rule accepted as true to specific facts in order to reach a necessary conclusion. The general rule functions as the major premise and the facts as the minor premise. When the connection between the premises holds, the conclusion follows as true.
Sources & Authorities· 10 primary sources
Select any source to read its text and confirm it supports the definition.
Cases
Statutes
Uniform Acts
How it applies
Common Examples
2
Lifetime Gift Treated as Devise Satisfaction
Denise Donovan's will left a cash devise to her daughter Destiny Davis but contained no clause addressing lifetime gifts. Shortly before death Denise transferred funds to Destiny and wrote a contemporaneous note declaring the transfer should count against the devise. Destiny retained the note without signing any acknowledgment. Applying the general rule that a lifetime gift satisfies a devise only when the will provides for deduction, the testator declares satisfaction in a contemporaneous writing, or the devisee acknowledges it in writing, the personal representative concludes the transfer meets none of the three conditions and the full devise remains payable from the estate.
Venue Analysis in Support Prosecution
Dominic Drake, an interstate truck driver, stopped paying a child-support order after the child moved to Wisconsin. Federal prosecutors charged him with willful failure to pay interstate support. Applying the general rule that venue for a continuing offense lies in any district where the offense was begun, continued, or completed, the court concludes that Wisconsin is a proper venue because the ongoing nonpayment is felt where the child resides and the support was to be received.
American Dredging Co. v. Miller510 U.S. 443, 446 (1994)
Common questions
Frequently Asked
2
How does deductive reasoning differ from inductive reasoning when courts create or apply legal rules?+
Deductive reasoning starts from an accepted general rule as the major premise and applies it to particular facts as the minor premise to produce a conclusion that must follow. Inductive reasoning works in the opposite direction by examining specific case outcomes to derive or refine the general rule itself.
Supporting sources
What role do the major and minor premises play in deductive legal analysis?+
The major premise is the general rule of law treated as true. The minor premise consists of the concrete facts of the dispute. When the logical connection between them is sound, the resulting conclusion is treated as necessarily true.
Supporting sources
6 N.H. 481, 26 Am.Dec. 713Contracts
…avail him. He does not appear to have offered evidence to show that he was damnified by such breach, or to have asked that a deduction should be made upon that account. The direction to the jury was therefore correct, that the plaintiff was entitled to recover as much as the labor performed was reasonably worth, and the…