Giovanni Sartor

Leibniz: Logico-Philosophical Puzzles in the Law
Philosophical Questions and Perplexing Cases in the Law
Editors: Alberto Artosi, Bernardo Pieri, Giovanni Sartor

This volume presents two Leibnizian writings, the Specimen of Philosophical Questions Collected from the Law and the Dissertation on Perplexing Cases. These works, originally published in 1664 and 1666, constitute, respectively, Leibniz’s thesis for the title of Master of Philosophy and his doctoral dissertation in law. Besides providing evidence of the earliest development of Leibniz’s thought and amazing anticipations of his mature views, they present a genuine intellectual interest, for the freshness and originality of Leibniz’s reflections on a striking variety of logico-philosophical puzzles drawn from the law. The Specimen addresses puzzling issues resulting from apparent conflicts between law and philosophy (the latter broadly understood as comprising also mathematics, as well as empirical sciences). The Dissertation addresses cases whose solution is puzzling because of the convoluted logical form of legal dispositions and contractual clauses, or because of conflicting priorities between concurring parties. In each case, Leibniz dissects the problems with the greatest ingenuity, disentangling their different aspects, and proposing solutions always reasonable and sometimes surprising. And he does not refrain from peppering his intellectual acrobatics with some humorous comments.

SUMMER SCHOOL ON LAW AND LOGIC

 

 

Applications are open to the Summer School on Law and Logic, which will be held at the EUI from 16-20 July 2012.  If you’re interested, please apply at the following link: http://lawandlogic2012.wordpress.com/05-application/. Places are limited, and registrations will be closed when places have been filled up.

 

 

 

The Summer School on Law and Logic is the first course ever to provide a comprehensive introduction to the uses of logic in the law. It combines an introduction to the basic methods of formal logic, a discussion of their application to the law, and an in-depth analysis of the logical structures of legal knowledge and legal reasoning.

It aims at providing postgraduate law students and legal professionals with knowledge of the methods of formal logic, and the ability to apply those methods to the analysis and critical evaluation of legal sources and legal arguments. We think that a background in formal logic is today an essential prerequisite for engaging in legal theory, and can be very useful also for developing doctrinal legal research, working in legal informatics, and, more generally, in the practice of law.

The Summer School is jointly hosted by the European University Institute (Florence, Italy), and the Harvard Law School (Cambridge, Mass., U.S.A.). It is also sponsored by the Cardozo Law School (New York, N.Y., U.S.A.), Cirsfid-University of Bologna (Italy), the University of Groningen (the Netherlands) and the European Academy of Legal Theory.

Professors: Scott Brewer, Henry Prakken, Nino Rotolo, Giovanni Sartor, Peter Tillers

For further information on the Summer School on Law and Logic, please visit: http://lawandlogic2012.wordpress.com/

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Giovanni Sartor is professor of Legal informatics and Legal Theory at the European University Institute of Florence and at the University of Bologna. He  obtained a PhD at the European University Institute (Florence), worked at the Court of Justice of the European Union (Luxembourg), was a researcher at the Italian National Council of Research (ITTIG, Florence), held the chair in Jurisprudence at Queen’s University of Belfast (where he now is honorary professor), and was Marie-Curie professor at the European University of Florence. He is President of the International Association for Artificial Intelligence and Law. He has published widely in legal philosophy, computational logic, legislation technique, and computer law. Among his publications is:  Corso di informatica giuridica:  (Giappichelli, 2008), Legal Reasoning: A Cognitive Approach to the law (Springer: 2005),  The Law of Electronic Agents (Oslo: Unipubskriftserier, 2003),  Judicial Applications of Artificial Intelligence (Dordrecht: Kluwer, 1998), Logical Models of Legal Argumentation (Dordrecht: Kluwer, 1996), and Artificial Intelligence in Law (Oslo: Tano, 1993).