It can be inferred from the passage that most legal scholars today would agree with the realists that
lsatstudier1August 5, 2020
Why not D?
Why is D not the answer?
Starting on L4, the passage says:
"the boundaries of the application of a term are often unclear. Nevertheless, they maintain that the system of legal rules by and large rests on clear core meanings that do determine definite outcomes for most cases."
Answer choice D says:
the boundaries of applicability of terms may sometimes be difficult to determine, but the core meanings of the terms are well established
Thank you!
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Thanks for the question! So (D) is wrong for a couple of reasons. First, (D) tell us that the core meanings of the terms are well established, and since there’s no qualifiers of any kind, we can take this to me that the core meanings of all the terms are well established. But that’s not true, since we’re only told that the system of legal rules “by and large” rests on clear core meanings, implying that there are some core meanings that aren’t clear, and thus potentially not well established.
Second, and more importantly, remember that this question is asking us for a point of agreement between most legal scholars today and the realists. Perhaps you could make the argument that most legal scholars today would agree with (D). But would the realists? We’re told that the realists think that “indeterminacy pervades every part of the law” (line 11), and the next paragraph is telling us about linguistic vagueness. So the legal realists probably wouldn’t agree with (D), and so it can’t be a point of agreement between the two.
Hope this helps! Feel free to ask any other questions that you might have.
