Analytic

Analytic

What does Analytic mean in American Law?

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

The term seems in legal contexts to have at least two major meanings which are at best tenuously connected. In the more widespread usage, “analytic” seems to mean something like “tackling a problem by breaking it down into its parts and asking close questions about the status of each part and its relationship to each other part.” The process is thought to require careful, thorough intellectual work, and to be, therefore, strongly differentiated from intuitive problem solving, or indulging one’s “feelings.” So to say around a law school that a person has “a fine analytic mind” implies that he is not in the thrall of instincts or emotions, but “thinks things through.”

The other meaning of “analytic” is far less frequently encountered in legal discourse. In that usage, the term refers to a statement the predicate of which is contained in the subject, e.g., “This triangle has three sides,” i.e., a statement the truth or falsity of which is wholly determined by definitions manipulated according to rules of logic. This is (loosely) contrasted with statements the truth or falsity of which are determined by factual determinations, e.g., “This triangle, when struck with a stick, gives off the note ‘middle C’.” Cf a posteriori.


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