The book presents a novel perspective on precedential constraint within common law, emphasizing the interplay between legal constraints and judicial freedom. It integrates insights from recent advancements in legal theory and artificial intelligence, applying a defeasible logic framework to enhance understanding of legal reasoning and decision-making processes. This approach aims to clarify how courts navigate the balance between adhering to precedent and exercising discretion.
"In the latter part of the book, after introducing a simple semantic model of senses as procedures, Horty considers the problems that definitions present for Frege's idea that the sense of an expression should mirror its grammatical structure. The requirement can be satisfied, he argues, only if defined expressions - and incomplete expressions as well - are assigned senses of their own, rather dun treated contextually. He then explores one way in which these senses might be reified within the procedural model, drawing on ideas from work in the semantics of computer programming languages."--BOOK JACKET.