Legal Abduction

Abstract

This paper deals with the role of abductive inference in judicial reasoning. In the determination of both the relevant facts and their legal consequences abductive inference plays a remarkable role, being the first step of such reasoning tasks. Two legal uses of abduction are distinguished in particular: abduction in the fact-finding, i.e. the reconstruction of the relevant facts, and in the law-finding, i.e. the legal conceptualization of those facts. We concentrate on the first, stressing the similarities it has with scientific abduction. We claim that both legal and scientific abduction are explanatory, truth-seeking and public. However, we deny that abduction per se can provide a justification of judicial decisions: rather, it is provided by the articulation of abduction, deduction and induction.