Contents
	Preface
1.	Is There Legal Reasoning
2.	Rules?in Law and Elsewhere
	2.1 Of Rules in General
	2.2 The Core and the Fringe
	2.3 The Generality of Rules
	2.4 The Formality of Law
3.	The Practice and Problems of Precedent
	3.1 Precedent in Two Directions
	3.2 Precedent?The Basic Idea
	3.3 A Strange Idea
	3.4 On Identifying a Precedent
	3.5 On the Force of Precedent?Overruling, Distinguishing, and Other Types of Avoidance
4.	Authority and Authorities
	4.1 The Idea of Authority
	4.2 On Binding and So-Called Persuasive Authority
	4.3 Why Real Authority Need Not be ?Binding?
	4.4 Can There Be Prohibited Authorities?
	4.5 How Authorities Become Authoritative
5.	The Use and Abuse of Analogies
	5.1 On Distinguishing Precedent from Analogy
	5.2 On the Determination of Similarity
	5.3 The Skeptical Challenge
	5.4 Analogy and the Speed of Legal Change
6.	The Idea of the Common Law
	6.1 Some History and a Comparison
	6.2 On the Nature of the Common Law
	6.3 How Does the Common Law Change?
	6.4 Is the Common Law Law?
	6.5 A Short Tour of the Realm of Equity
7.	The Challenge of Legal Realism
	7.1 Do Rules and Precedents Decide cases?
	7.2 Does Doctrine Constrain Even if It Does Not Direct?
	7.3 An Empirical Claim
	7.4 Realism and the Role of the Lawyer
	7.5 Critical Legal Studies and Realism in Modern Dress
8.	The Interpretation of Statutes
	8.1 Statutory Interpretation in the Regulatory State
	8.2 The Role of the Text
	8.3 When the Text Provides No Answer
	8.4 When the Text Provides a Bad Answer
	8.5 The Canons of Statutory Construction
9.	The Judicial Opinion
	9.1 The Causes and Consequences of Judicial Opinions
	9.2 Giving Reasons
	9.3 On Holding and Dicta
	9.4 The Declining Frequency of Opinions
10.	Making Law with Rules and Standards
	10.1 The Basic Distinction
	10.2 Rules, Standards, and the Question of Discretion
	10.3 Stability and Flexibility
	10.4 Rules and Standards in Judicial Opinions
11.	Law and Fact
	11.1 On the Idea of a Fact
	11.2 Determining Facts at Trial?The Law of Evidence and Its Critics
	11.3 Facts and the Appellate Process
12.	The Burden of Proof and Its Cousins
	12.1 The Burden of Proof
	12.2 Presumptions
	12.3 Deference and the Allocation of Decision-Making Responsibility
	Index