Slippery Slope Arguments in Legal Contexts: Towards Argumentative Patterns
Authors:
- Bin Wang,
- Frank Zenker
Abstract
Addressing the slippery slope argument (SSA) in legal contexts from the perspective of pragma-dialectics, this paper elaborates the conditions under which an SSA-scheme instance is used reasonably (rather than fallaciously). We review SSAinstances in past legal decisions and analyze the basic legal SSA-scheme. By illustrating the institutional preconditions influencing the reasoning by which an SSA moves forward, we identify three sub-schemes (causal SSA, analogical SSA, and Sorites SSA). For each sub-scheme we propose critical questions, as well as four rules that clarify when the SSA scheme is used reasonably. The institutional preconditions make the analogical SSA expectable in common law contexts; the Sorites SSA is expectable in civil law contexts; whereas the causal SSA is common to both contexts. This result should inform future work on the identification of typical argumentative patterns for the SSA in legal contexts.
- Record ID
- WUTec50dd92fe2b43419a659e255a7763f0
- Author
- Journal series
- Argumentation, ISSN 0920-427X, e-ISSN 1572-8374
- Issue year
- 2021
- Vol
- 35
- No
- 4
- Pages
- 581-601
- Publication size in sheets
- 1.00
- Keywords in English
- Argument scheme; Argumentative pattern; Critical discussion; Fallacy; Legal argumentation; Slippery slope argument
- ASJC Classification
- ;
- DOI
- DOI:10.1007/s10503-020-09545-9 Opening in a new tab
- URL
- https://doi.org/10.1007/s10503-020-09545-9 Opening in a new tab
- Language
- (en) English
- Score (nominal)
- 200
- Score source
- journalList
- Score
- = 200.0, 14-05-2022, ArticleFromJournal
- Publication indicators
- = 0; = 0; : 2018 = 1.895; : 2020 (2 years) = 1.089 - 2020 (5 years) =1.162
- Uniform Resource Identifier
- https://repo.pw.edu.pl/info/article/WUTec50dd92fe2b43419a659e255a7763f0/
- URN
urn:pw-repo:WUTec50dd92fe2b43419a659e255a7763f0
* presented citation count is obtained through Internet information analysis and it is close to the number calculated by the Publish or PerishOpening in a new tab system.