Abstraction

What does Abstraction mean in American Law?

The definition of Abstraction in the law of the United States, as defined by the lexicographer Arthur Leff in his legal dictionary is:

A taking, with an implication of wrongfulness. See abstract.

An all pervasive intellectual technique in which one treats a complex entity or process or, indeed, any pile of empirical data, as if it were much simpler than one knows it to be. The technique itself is quite complex, but its basic move is to think and talk about something as if many things about it are not relevant for then present purposes, i.e., as if for present purposes they don’t exist. We do that every time we talk about classes of things as if there were no differences among the members of the class, e.g., as if the class “cow” was made up of identical cows. In fact, of course, every cow is what she is, but for some purpose (e.g., not running into them with cars) they can be treated as “the same.” Similarly, a chemist may choose to think of a gas as composed of perfectly elastic spheres of mathematical-point dimension

which exert no force on each other except by collision. Or an economist may choose to think about transactions between people as being free of transaction costs. Or a lawyer may think about a rule of law as if all persons to whom it is addressed identically know about and understand it.

In each case, the “as if” clause is in fact false, and known to be so, but for some purpose it may be wise, or even necessary, not to think about that. The chemist, for instance, may be making only gross calculations for some purpose to which the inaccuracy of ignoring a great deal of what modern science knows about atoms and molecules is of no practical importance. The danger in each instance is in falling into the belief that differences unimportant in one context are necessarily also unimportant in another, e.g., if an economist tried to apply directly what he learned about the behavior of persons in the absence of transaction costs to actual transactions, from which such costs are never absent, and are frequently significant. See also model. But it should also be remembered, especially by lawyers, that

some “as if” beliefs are central to decisions of basic political import, e.g., that all persons are entitled to equal treatment by a legal system despite the actual differences among them, i.e., as if those differences (in loveability, or intelligence, or whatever) did not exist.

Abstracting electricity in Law Enforcement

Main Entry: Law Enforcement in the Legal Dictionary. This section provides, in the context of Law Enforcement, a partial definition of abstracting electricity.

Resources

See Also

• Law Enforcement Officer
• Police Officer
• Law Enforcement Agency

Further Reading

• abstracting electricity in A Dictionary of Law Enforcement (Oxford University Press)
• abstracting electricity in the Encyclopedia of Law Enforcement
• A Treatise on the Police of the Metropolis

Abstraction of water in Law Enforcement

Main Entry: Law Enforcement in the Legal Dictionary. This section provides, in the context of Law Enforcement, a partial definition of abstraction of water.

Resources

See Also

• Law Enforcement Officer
• Police Officer
• Law Enforcement Agency

Further Reading

• abstraction of water in A Dictionary of Law Enforcement (Oxford University Press)
• abstraction of water in the Encyclopedia of Law Enforcement
• A Treatise on the Police of the Metropolis

Concept of Abstraction in the context of Real Property

A short definition of Abstraction: A method for appraising a site (land) by estimating the depreciated value of the improvements and deducting that amount from the total value (improved value) of the property. See: Allocation.

Concept of Abstraction in the context of Real Property

A short definition of Abstraction: A method for appraising a site (land) by estimating the depreciated value of the improvements and deducting that amount from the total value (improved value) of the property. See: Allocation.